FG boycotts launch of 2016 health budget scorecard

Representatives of executive government completely boycott the launch of a scorecard assessing performance of the 2016 health budget, leaving a lone federal legislator to represent the entire federal government. The federal health ministry, its departments and agencies as well as the ministries of finance, budget and economic planning did not show up despite being officially […]

Representatives of executive government completely boycott the launch of a scorecard assessing performance of the 2016 health budget, leaving a lone federal legislator to represent the entire federal government.

The federal health ministry, its departments and agencies as well as the ministries of finance, budget and economic planning did not show up despite being officially invited, alongside civil society groups and development partners, and none sent in any representation.

The only representation of government at the launch was the Mohammed Usman, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Health Services.

“Government officials have developed this habit of not attending when certain presentations, decisions, suggestions and recommendations are made which will really go to help everybody,” he told Daily Trust.

“The work we do in health is a collective one, and one important arm [of government] not being here is not really good.”

The scorecard published by MamaYe-Evidence for Action for the second straight year showed used red, green and amber of traffic light to rate the health budget on transparency, participation, adequate allocation and release.

Only FMOH’s publishing the enacted 2016 budget on its website earned a green, but all other measures of transparency were in the red: the annual National Health Account for 2016 isn’t published yet; the last account detailing budgetary spending was for 2014.

In addition the budget did not stick to fiscal calendar. And release of capital budget, even though complete, did not meet time for key agencies as the National Health Insurance Scheme, the FMOH and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

“Budget is a cycle, but we treat it as an event,” said Hussaini Abdu, country director for Plan International Nigeria, who led discussion on the scorecard.

“We did not do well in transparency. And it is key in budgeting. The process is as important as the outcome.”

Public hearings at the National Assembly that included civil society groups and consultations on the budget earned the 2016 health budget green on participation but FMOH’s failure to consult with communities to inform annual budget planning earned a red.

The scorecard gave a red on adequate resource allocation—including inadequate per capita health spending, health budget still less than 15% of total budget, and failure to assigned at least 1% of consolidated revenue to implement the National Health Act.

“You can discuss all this, and the people to implement it aren’t here. It’s sad. It’s part of the reason we are not making progress,” said Usman.

“The government wasn’t represented but we have taken a step ahead to go to the FMOH and met with the minister, who was represented by a director. And we had our own session with them because we felt we could have certain discussion just between government and us that they may or may not feel very comfortable having with everybody around,” said Dr Tunde Segun, country director for MamaYe-Evidence for Action.

He said the government delegation ahead of the launch head looked at areas of the scorecard it could improve on but asked that civil society groups continue advocate for more resource for the health sector.