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Paidamoyo Chipunza: Senior Health Reporter

The Health Services Board has embarked on a nationwide headcount of all its employees as it seeks to rationalise the Government wage bill in the health sector, in line with the civil service audit.In an interview yesterday, HSB executive director Ms Ruth Kaseke said the exercise which started last Wednesday was expected to run for up to six weeks, culminating in submission of a comprehensive report before the end of the year.

Ms Kaseke said the exercise would be carried out at all levels of health care including mission and rural district institutions where employees are on Government payroll.

“The exercise follows a Cabinet approval of the Civil Service Audit report on 17 November 2015 in which all other Commissions, including the HSB were directed to implement measures to rationalise the Government Wage Bill. “The HSB is therefore conducting a head count within the same framework,” said Ms Kaseke.

She said HSB had dispatched eight teams to all provinces, central hospitals and other public health sector institutions to carry out the exercise. Ms Kaseke said all public health sector workers were expected to be at work for physical verification of their employment.

She, however, said employees who are officially on manpower development leave especially those studying out of the country did not necessarily have to return to work as the teams would also review internal records to establish approval of their absence.

“We appreciate that there are some workers whom we have allowed to further their education through our system some who may not be able to return to work during the head count and we have put measures in place to ensure that they are counted during the exercise,” she said.

Ms Kaseke said the exercise was not meant to retrench employees, but was a way of accounting for Government resources.

“When people hear about rationalisation they quickly think they are going to be fired, but that is not the case. The audit is meant to account for where our resources are going,” said Ms Kaseke.

She said through this exercise, the HSB was hoping to gather appropriate and accurate information that would aid in planning human resources for health.

She said its results would also assist the Ministry of Health and Child Care to plan effectively for the health service delivery and provision. The head counts are in line with the Zim-Asset Public Administration, Governance and Performance Management sub-cluster which is guided by the Results Based Management System and focuses on budgeting and resourcing, public sector modernisation and civil service reform, fostering good governance and building capacities for public sector institutions.