Govt halves health debt

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Government has halved its debt to service providers in the health sector from about $70 million in 2016 to $32 million, finance and administration director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Mrs Heather Machamire has said.

Giving oral evidence before the Public Accounts Committee chaired by Dzivarasekwa Member of Parliament Edwin Mushoriwa yesterday, Mrs Machamire attributed the progress to support from Treasury.

“We have seen a major reduction from $70 million in 2016 to $32 million in 2018, which is currently outstanding and we continue to clear these as and when we receive funding from Ministry of Finance,” said Mrs Machamire, who was in Parliament to answer to some of issues raised in the Auditor-General’s 2017 report.

She said while the disbursements from Treasury were still far from clearing their debts, the amounts owed continue to go down each year.

In 2017, Government owed about $48 million to its creditors.

“Our budget has not been adequate to pay off all our creditors who are mostly utilities and drugs so whenever we get funding from Ministry of Finance we continue paying these and the figure continue to go down. Currently our debt stands at $32 million from our 2018 submissions,” said Mrs Machamire.