14 Feb 2017

Ministry of Health and Wellness employees have been encouraged to decrease expenditure on activities that do not add value to government service delivery.
The ministry permanent secretary, Ms Shenaaz El Halabi made the plea when addressing Hukuntsi Primary Hospital management staff on February 10.
She urged them to do more with less and maximise in service delivery.
For the past years, she said government was unable to meet their proposed budget and of other ministries appealing to employees to appreciate that government was going through a rough economic patch therefore prudent spending was necessary.
“As the executive, you are responsible for implementing government financial regulations and when they change, you should inform your juniors to ensure they understand the predicament government is in,” she said.
She called upon the executive to control overtime and make sure imprest was retired within the stipulated time.
If control measures are put in place, she said revenue base would increase and therefore solve financial challenges.
Ms El Halabi said financial regulations were similar across departments therefore staff should not press panic buttons by thinking that draconian regulations were imposed on them.
She encouraged staff to come up with ways to assist improve service delivery adding that challenges differ from one place to another and it was them who understood theirs better
Ms El Halabi decried the ministry poor performance last year saying it did not match the budget which was the second largest.
“I encourage you to work collectively to bring desired results. With the little resources at your disposal you can turn the ministry around and be one of the best this year,” she said.
She said financial constraints hampered recruitment of doctors and other specialists however, the ministry had been in consultation with the Directorate of Public Service Management to solve the problem. ends