Minister of Finance and Treasury Ahmed Munawar has said the health sector is one of the areas where a strengthened spending structure could generate great results.
The finance minister said in the past two years, expenditure on health had increased two-fold and therefore a sustainable expenditure mechanism is vital. He made the statement proposing the State Budget 2019 to the parliament.
In the state budget, over USD 194 million has been allocated for the health sector, which would fund 25 Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) projects in the sector. 16% of the amount would be for capital expenditure while 84% would be for recurrent expenditure.
The funds allocated for health amounts to 10.3% of the total budget, which portrays that the health sector is one of the areas that has been prioritised in the State Budget. Recommendations to strengthen the spending culture of the health sector has been included in the State Budget.
These include, bulk procurement of consumables from international wholesalers to slash spending on consumables, implementation of a standard treatment guideline to rationalise expenses and services, management of information systems and better management of inventories.