The Member of Parliament for Nabdam in the Upper East Region, Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane has bemoaned the negative impact of the capping of statutory funds on the operations of state agencies.
The Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act passed in 2017, provides that, funds from statutory sources like National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND), District Assemblies Common Fund etc. for each financial year should be equivalent to 25 percent of national revenue.
Dr. Nawaane speaking on A1 Radio, Wednesday, August 8, 2022, said most of the agencies are ineffective because they are handicapped in terms of operations.
“One aspect is the capping. Most agencies are capped; they’re not being paid. When they generate internal revenue part of the internal revenue is taken back by the government. You take the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) for example, they generate some income by themselves but part of this money the government takes it away and they are not able to fulfil their obligations.”
“It cuts across most of the agencies. They’re capped and we are asking the government that these facilities are not getting enough money from central government and the little money too they get you [the government] take it away and so they are handicapped in terms of their operations.”
The Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament Select Committee on Health also mentioned that some bills and regulations in the pipeline are not been followed up by the Ministry of Health.
“They should submit it for us to look at them and pass them, their fee fixing resolution, if you go to Komfo Anokye and Korle Bu, for example, they’re still charging fees that they used to charge around 2012 and it’s affecting their operations,” he added.
He’s hoping that government will act on some of the challenges facing the agencies in order to make them effective.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Osuman Kaapore Tahiru|Ghana
