LAYYAH: The health budget allocation has not been completely utilised in the district in the last many years which poses a big question over the ef ficiency of the department. The situation can be gauged from the fact that in the fiscal year 2015-16, 51pc of the budget remained unutilised as Rs881m out of the total Rs1,727m were not spent and returned to the district finance department.

This was revealed in an analysis by the Project to Improve Financial Reporting and Auditing (PIFRA).

The allocations were meant for basic health units (BHUs), ruralhealth centres (RHUs), tehsil headquarters (THQ) and district headquarters (DHQ) hospitals, dispensaries and administration but the funds continuously lapsed.

The total budget allocation in 2013-14 was Rs974m, out it Rs689m were spent while 29pc of the budget lapsed to the finance department. The allocation for 2014-15 was Rs876m, Rs713m were spent and the lapsed amount remained 19pc of the allocated amount. The appalling figures of lapsed budgetary aHocadon for 2015-16 have been given above.

The average of the last three years expenses under different heads showed that a large amount of the budget, almost 79pc, was spent on salaries and pensions ofthe health staff while eight percent of the allocated budget was spent on purchase of medicines.

Theinefhcientuse offundshas perhapsledtothedecreaseinthe budgetary allocation for the ongoing year.

In fiscal year 2016-17, the district government has allocated Rs1,157m for health services. This year`s allocation is 33 percent less as compared to the last year. The highest share of budget has been allocated for T HQ and DHQ hospitals which constitutes 53pc of the total budget. The staff salaries and pensions again would take 83pc of the allocated budget, followed by the purchase of medicines. Due to the decrease in allocated budget, per person allocation of medicines has also comedown to Rs41 in the ongoing year as compared Rs43 in 2015-16.

Commenting on this dire situation, lawyer and human rights activist Kashif Inayat said Section 107 of the Punjab Local Government Act 2013 states that `a copy of the annual statements of the account shall be displayed at a conspicuous place in the office of the local government for public inspection and all objections or suggestions concerning such accounts received from the public shall be considered by the local government and appropriate decision shall be taken`. But to avoid the public scrutiny, he said, the practice was not being done in the district Layyah.

Shahbaz Bukhari, program manager of the EmpowermentVoices Accountability for Better Health and Nutrition (EVABHN), said the citizens and civil society had a right to monitor the implementation of the budget.

The citizens should engage themselves to monitor performance of the service providers to enhance the functioning of the health department, he added.

Health Department Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Ameer Abdullah said he was new on the post but he would take steps to improve the performance of the health department to provide better health services to the citizens. He said: `We will try to utilise all the budgetary allocation by enhancing the efficiency and capability of the health officials by continuous monitoring.