By DALCY LULUA
DURING the Provincial Health Authority (PHA) CHAIR & CEO Forum, Minister for Health and Member for Wabag Open Dr Lino Tom announced that only seven provincial health authorities have submitted their annual reports for this year.
“Currently there are only seven PHAs that have submitted their annual reports, it is my responsibility to present an annual statement at the Parliament, I can’t do that now because the rest of 21 PHAs haven’t submitted their annual statement,” Tom explained.
“I can’t stand up here and name the seven who delivered, that’s the responsibility of boards to make sure your PHAs submit quarterly reports and do annual reports.
“In any organisation, CEOs will be fired for not presenting their reports and I won’t blame the CEOs alone, I will blame the boards for not demanding the CEOs to present those quarterly reports. I am under pressure from the government to present my statement, I can’t present my statement when only seven PHAs have submitted their reports.”
Tom further stressed that as Minister for Health, he will be looking at this during his second year as the minister.
“What would be required is for PHAs to submit their quarterly reports to their boards, to their provincial governments and to the Secretary for Health and to my office,” he said.
“I want to also remind the governance board, every quarters you must demand your CEOs to submit their financial reports. If the CEO can’t do that, I think we shouldn’t allow a CEO to be in the office.”
Tom said in a country where we are limited by the resources, it is imperative to witness the responsible utilisation of resources.
He said it is crucial to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of these valuable assets.
‘We want to see resources being used in the right way and we must make sure there is transparency and accountability in how we use those resources,” Tom added.
“Those are the challenges we faced and unfortunately, I have to say it upfront because if we don’t deliver, there’s no relevance for us to be in the office and that’s same for me. We can’t occupy a public office if we can’t do a job, we have to be accountable to our people. We can’t make the judgement when you CEOs can’t provide your quarterly reports.”
