- Dr Chibanzi Mwachonda will chair the Healthcare Systems Task force and Mahmoud Noor will be in charge of the finances task force.
- According to a report by the Office of the Controller of Budget, Mombasa’s outstanding pending bills as of June 30, 2021 amounted to Sh4.46 billion.
Image: LABAN WALLOGA
To resolve the perennial health workers’ strike and the crisis around the Sh4.9 billion pending bills, Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir has formed two teams to work on the problems.
Nassir on Thursday issued two executive orders that established the Taskforce on State of Finances in Mombasa and Taskforce on Healthcare Systems in Mombasa.
Dr Chibanzi Mwachonda will chair the Healthcare Systems Taskforce and Mahmoud Noor will be in charge of the finances taskforce.
The two teams are expected to audit and give back recommendations within two months.
“The Healthcare Task Force will provide a longtime strategic plan, suggesting ways of improving the health coverage and revealing what ails Mombasa’s healthcare system,” the governor said.
“We are also looking at how we can maximise the usage of all the medical facilities in the county for people to get better services.”
The task force will consist of a representative from the Kenya Medical Associations, Mombasa Civil Society Organisations, the National Health Insurance Fund and six Community Health Volunteers representing each subcounty.
Other members of the task force will include the chief officer from public medical services and public health and the county Secretary.
“My administration is looking at the economy of scale and also looking into ways on how the purchase of medicine and non-medicinal items can be centralised so that the county can have low purchasing rates,” Nassir said.
The task force would also be expected to review the architecture of healthcare delivery, including human resources for health and ICT for health in the county.
It would do an assessment on the state of physical healthcare infrastructure, including buildings and heavy and movable machinery equipment, evaluate the state of supply chains and recommend the upgrading and or special purpose of existing medical facilities.
The team is also expected to audit the current public healthcare human resource deployed and make recommendations to address skills gap, assess and recommend on addressing disease patterns and also formulate lasting solutions towards achieving universal health care that is affordable and accessible.
The team will table its report to the governor in 30 days’ time.
The finances task force will comprise a representative from the Kenya National Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mombasa chapter, Mombasa Law Society, Kenya Revenue Authority representative, CSOs, and the business community.
County Secretary, county Attorney and finance chief officer would be part of the team with its secretariat in the office of the governor.
The governor promised that in the next Finance Bill, Mombasa residents would see a reduction in the payment of licenses.
“We are also going to see the single business permit collapsed into one. You will no longer have to pay for health, fire and other licenses separately. You just pay once to process the licenses,” the county chief said.
Nassir said the county has an ambitious plan of enacting the Mombasa Revenue Services.
MRS, he said, will operate like KRA whereby it will look into all revenue streams and ensure that all loopholes are covered.
“We want to have a centralised point of looking into our revenue streams and source. The county economy is already in bad shape; we cannot afford to burden the citizens into paying extra, that’s why we are moving in to seal loopholes,” he said.
The task force is expected to table its report within the next 60 days.
According to a report by the Office of the Controller of Budget, Mombasa’s outstanding pending bills as of June 30, 2021 amounted to Sh4.46 billion.
The outstanding bills comprised Sh1.8 billion for recurrent expenditure and Sh2.66 billion for development expenditure.
During the period reviewed, pending bills amounting to Sh1.3 billion were settled, consisting of Sh853.28 million for recurrent expenditure and Sh448.94 million for development programmes. This resulted in outstanding pending bills amounting to 3.16 billion as of March 31, 2022.
The Office of the Auditor General listed the eligible pending bills as of June 30, 2020, at Sh1.61 billion out of which the county has settled bills amounting to Sh202.61 million, leaving a balance of Sh1.41 billion as of March 2022, according to Nassir.
(edited by Amol Awuor)