TACOSODE: The government should improve the collection of domestic revenue in order to raise the health budget

All photos by Friday Simbaya.

IRINGA: Tanzania Council for Social Development (TACOSODE) Executive Director, Theofrida Kapinga said the government should improve the collection of domestic revenue, in order to raise the health budget, particularly for HIV/AIDS, maternal health, pregnant women and infants.

She said that the government should be committed to collect domestic revenue and prevent embezzlement of public funds in order to improve the health sector, rather than depending on donor funds which sometime come with strings or sometimes it doesn’t come at all.

Kapinga made the statement on Friday last week during a one day panel discussion held in Iringa, involving officials from medical stores department (MSD), district Medical Officer’s office, health facilities in charges and media members.

The panel discussion was meant to discuss the sustainable ways for supplying family planning drugs and medical supplies.

She observed the government must stick on Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) process which requires wise spending of public funds instead of using external resources.

Domestic Resource Mobilization refers to the generation of savings from domestic resources and their allocation to economically and socially productive investments.

TACOSODE is implement the citizens engaging in government oversight (CEGO) in health project in Kongwa (Dodoma) and Iringa districts, through Social Accountability Monitoring (SAM) funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Tanzania is among African countries that have failed to achieve the objectives of setting aside 15 percent of its national budget for the health sector based on Abuja Declaration being reached in 2001.

The resolution has been achieved by the leaders of the African Union (AU) in their meeting in Abuja, Nigeria where, among other things they discussed the challenges facing the health sector in Africa.

According to the report presented by the district laboratory technologist (Iringa DC) Greyson Malila during panel discussion on the supply system of medical equipment and supplies including laboratory reagents, said there is challenge they face including Pharmaceuticals and medical supplies not coming in time from MSD.

Malila said lack of some medical equipment and supplies including lab reagents in the health centers and hospitals in the district like Stool containers, Urine container and Gluco plus strips are hindering provision of quality health services.

He said that often approved funds or the health budget come very late and sometimes come less compared the requested funds from the central government which making the district council not providing health services effectively.

Iringa district council has 75 centers that provide health care, including 10 health centers, 65 dispensaries and hospitals designated Tosamaganga.

On his part, Medical Stores Department (MSD) Iringa Zone Customer Service Officer, Henry Luanda said MSD was established by the Act of Parliament No. 13 of 1993.

MSD is a department within the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MOHCDGEC) MSD has core three functions; Procurement, Storage and Distribution.

He said MSD provides services to all government hospitals, public organizations, FBO and other private hospitals approved by the ministry.

District, regional hospitals and DDH get allocations of funds from MOHCDGEC thus get medicines from MSD according to their allocations.

Luanda said that basically funds from the ministry is not sufficient though for this financial year set budget has raised to 250b which is higher compared to FY2015/2016.

“Due to that the government allowed other sources to be used to reduce existing gap: NHIF, CHF, TIKA / cost sharing and Basket fund. All these are to ensure people get appropriate services for their health,” Luanda said.

He further noted that the out of stock for some essential medicines and medical supplies was due to the delay of disbursement of funds from the ministry of health and also delay of settlement of debts for goods sold through Local Purchas Orders (LPO’s) and Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs).

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