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Some advantages of the proposed structure include: reduction in vacant positions that MOH does
not intend to fill and cannot resource; joining the management role together for personnel and
administration where one of these unfilled vacancies exists and thereby providing a management
structure that is more affordable and has a more usual level of employees (current structure has
division managers for very few employees); and creating the potential for more flexible use of
resources by aggregating some functions and reducing the detailed designation of jobs.
This is just one example of a possible reorganisation of these functions. It would need to be
analysed in more depth. Suggestions need to be made for the level of staffing and these suggestions
need to be considered by the MOH before a firm recommendation could be made.
In the medium term the government may wish to consider using a back office function servicing
many ministries for some of the services set out above.
Department of Budget and Finance: This department has nine staff. The Director is being
recruited, making a total of 10. It is organised into two divisions as set out in Appendix F. The
Division of Budget has a manager and three staff. The Division of Finance has one manager and
five staff positions, but we have been advised that the Assets Officer’s position has been moved to
the Department of Administration. This function could be added to the “Administration Services” in
the diagram above.
The role of the Chief Financial Officer is carried out by the Director of the Department. We have
been advised that the law requires this position to report to the PS.
In interviews with staff from this department the following issues were raised. Some possible
changes are noted.
Process issues
Very detailed sign off, documentation and other processing requirements for making
payments (eg, five signatures for payments) with opportunities to streamline these. If this is
done, it would require changes to regulations for all ministries. The Government may wish to
consider reviewing the major business processes that are common across ministries and
look for ways to improve their efficiency, including options for shared back office functions.
Budgeting issues
Problems with a lack of alignment between capital and recurrent budgeting and planning,
including a position dealing with donor capital being located under the Department of
Strategic Management and poor communications between that position and the Department
of Budget and Finance. This contributes to a lack of quality in capital planning along with
other issues such as the approach to capital planning being reactive and not sufficiently
forward looking. There are problems with commissioning buildings without considering
recurrent costs. The wider issue of a lack of alignment between capital and recurrent
budgeting needs to be addressed through the planning and budgeting process, but the issue
with the structural separation could be addressed by locating the capital investment role with
the finance and budgeting functions. At a minimum, there should be clear requirements for
this donor coordination and donor related capital planning functions to exchange information
freely with the budget and finance functions.
MOH manages some capital for agencies reporting to it which some staff think could be
better managed by the agency, so decision making is better aligned to the actual capital
requirements of the agency and to improve the clarity of roles and accountabilities. There
are issues with capital planning and management in agencies identified in the 2007 report
from the Office of the Auditor General that would need to be considered in making any
changes to roles and responsibilities for capital planning. 5
5 The Office of the Auditor General’s report for 2007 identified issues with a lack of financial statements, procurement,
capital being purchased and not used, service issues in regulating medicines, and unauthorised purchases. The MOH
rejected many of these findings and the OAG did not accept many of the reasons put forward by MOH.
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