By Kemo Cham
Some Le308.8 billion was allocated to the health sector for the remaining time in the current financial year, according to details of the supplementary budget presented to parliament last week.
Finance Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa, said the amount included Le200 billion as the contribution of the Government of Sierra Leone to the operations of the National Covid-19 Emergency Response Center (NaCOVERC).
The supplementary budget was presented to the House on Friday July 24.
Saffa told lawmakers that the funds allocated to the health docket covered expenditure for the Government’s Health sector and Economic Response to COVID-19. It also included funds for the operations of ambulances at Le26.6 billion, mortuary services for 20 hospitals at Le16.4 billion, and laboratory and X-ray services at Le65.8 billion.
Among other things, the supplementary budget, which is estimated at Le1.7 trillion and brings the total budget for the financial year to Le10.5 trillion, was designed to fill gaps created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The viral pandemic, which began in China in late 2019, arrived in Sierra Leone shortly after the West African country passed its budget. Adjustment made due to the measures taken by the government in response to the pandemic, coupled with the economic effects caused by these measures, required a review of the budget, according to Mr Saffa.
The budget, presented on the theme: “Saving Lives and Livelihoods”, has three main objectives, which are to implement the COVID-19 Health Sector Preparedness and Response Plan in order to strengthen the country’s health systems to save lives, to implement the Quick Action Economic Response Programmes to save livelihoods, and to continue the implementation of the original 2020 Budget priorities, which will continue into 2021 as part of the recovery efforts in the post COVID-19 period.
“This unprecedented pandemic is threatening to reverse our gains in stabilising the economy and hard-won economic recovery of the past twenty four months. Like most countries in the world, Government is trying to strike a delicate balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods,” Saffa said in the marathon speech to the House on Friday.
The initial budget, presented on the 8th of November 2019 and approved on the 18th of December 2019, was dedicated to the development of the country’s human capital.
Saffa said it was aimed at consolidating the gains made during the first year of implementing the Bio administration’s Medium-Term Development Plan. That document laid out strategies to sustain fiscal consolidation in order to safeguard macroeconomic stability, continue investment in human capital and propose targeted interventions aimed at creating job opportunities, especially for the youth and women. Education notably raked the largest portion of the allocation, with 21percent.
The Finance Minister said these have been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The widespread disruptions from COVID-19 to global health and economic activity had spill-over effects on our economy during January to March 2020. In particular, the weak economic activity in our major trading partner economies, especially China and Europe and the consequent collapse in commodity prices, was already having a severe impact on our exports,” Saffa said..
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