Accra, Mar. 5, GNA- Parliament on Friday approved 1.4 trillion cedis for the Ministry of Health for the 2004 fiscal year. Dr Kwaku Afriyie, the sector Minister who moved for the approval said the ministry would provide quality health services that are affordable and accessible.

He said last year, a number of construction works were carried out to facilitate access to health services in some areas.

Fifteen health centres were completed in 15 communities including Agona Nsaba in the Central Region, Apirede in the Eastern Region, Nkawie in the Ashanti region and Old Ningo in the Greater Accra region. The Minister stated that, safe motherhood activities increased last year because of supervised delivery and antenatal care.

Dr. Afriyie said health financing would focus on the introduction of appropriate prepayment schemes with in-built protection for the poor and the vulnerable and with the view to eventually phasing out the "cash and carry system".

"Implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) will be accelerated."

He said the Ministry would also direct its attention on the expansion of existing training institutions and provision of new ones with the view to increasing the number of health professionals.

"Provision of residential accommodation for staff will be given prominence as a means of enhancing redistribution of human resources," adding that staff retention would be enhanced through improved staff motivation and morale.

"Also, staffing levels of deprived and high-risk areas would be improved through the provision of incentives," the Minister said.

Mr Akomea Kyeremateng, Chairman of the Select Committee on Health presenting his report said the committee noted that on the average, it took between six months to one year for a new employee to receive his/her salary due to the cumbersome procedure for seeking authorisation from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Controller and Accountant-General's Department.

The Committee stated, "At a time that more health professionals are needed to augment the dwindling number in the health sector laid down procedure should not be rigid and deterring."

It therefore recommended a review of the existing procedure to facilitate quick regularisation and payment of salaries to all new entrants into the health sector.

The Committee observed that a lot of medical equipment at health centres were obsolete and requested the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to provide adequate funds in subsequent budgets to enable the Ministry of Health to discharge its duties.

The Committee said the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme had suffered a setback in the past years and this had given rise to reported cases from 5,545 in 2002 to 8,000 in 2003.

It urged the Ministry of Health to focus greater attention on containing the disease and scale up its surveillance on the disease while instituting collaborative programmes aimed at eradicating the disease.

The House also approved the budgets of three other ministries and that of the Judicial Service. The Ministry of Interior had 712.2 billion cedis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had 474.1 billion cedis and 39.1 billion cedis went to the Ministry of Justice, 130.4 billion cedis went to the Judicial Service.

Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, the Interior Minister, who moved the motion for the approval of the his Ministry's budget said this year, they would focus on strengthening early warning systems to enhance internal security.

He said since this year was an election year, security would be beefed up.

He said some of the agencies under his ministry were doing well in revenue generation and needed to be resourced with some of the funds they generate. He cited the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), which brought in 40 billion cedis in 2003.

During the debate on the Ministry's budget, some members of the Minority were not pleased that the money allocated to the Office of the National Security was quite high and said the Police Service should rather be resourced well.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Foreign Minister said he had requested for 924.9 billion cedis for his Ministry for this year but only 474.1 billion cedis was given to the Foreign Ministry. He explained that the cut down on the Ministry's budget would affect the their work, adding that most of their facilities in missions abroad were deteriorating fast.

Nana Akufo Addo said the diplomatic missions generated 5.8 million dollars in consular services in 2003.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, in moving the motion for the approval of his Ministry's budget, said the Ministry would extend the activities of Registrar-General's Department to the regions.

Mr. Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in presenting their recommendations said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning should take appropriate measures to "ensure that the Ghana Law School embarks on an expansion project to enable them to admit more students."