PARLIAMENT has criticised a government plan to introduce a tax that will fund the proposed health insurance, arguing that such cover works in stable economies and that it was prone to abuse.
BY MUNESU NYAKUDYA
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care chairperson Ruth Labode said they had learnt from other countries like Tanzania, Ghana and Rwanda that corruption remained a threat to such a plan.
“This situation works in a normal economy. For instance, it has worked for Rwanda, Ghana and Tanzania because they have stable economies, but here in Zimbabwe we are struggling with salaries, hence the money might be diverted for other uses.
“It is a good proposal, but the problem we have in Zimbabwe is that our economy is literally collapsing so there is a high chance that whenever that money goes to the ministry, the minister can just pick a phone and order that organisation and say we want that money to do something else,” Labode told NewsDay in an interview.
She added: “As long as the country cannot pay salaries, you cannot then turn around and say some money will be reserved somewhere and no one will take it, it will be taken.”
Labode said in the event that the tax was introduced, there was need to put in place proper safeguards against corruption and abuse.
“It was suggested that the National Aids Council (NAC) takes that responsibility. In my own opinion, if NAC takes that responsibility, we need to calculate the costs of them managing it. We don’t want a situation whereby instead of the money going to the hospitals, it then goes to the NAC staffers,” Labode added.
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The MDC-T MP said such funds would need to be audited by external institutions and not government comptroller for “transparency and accountability”.
“Also as we are looking at ways of financing health care, we should also be looking at ways of cutting government expenditure.
“For example, reducing ministers and parliament as well as directors and big elephants that we are building — the parastatals and other organisations —that are actually just eating into monies from the government and which are duplicating the system,” Labode said.
