Bottlenecks in the Disbursement of Government of Sierra Leone Funds to Health and Water Resources Sectors 2010-2013

In this report, the Budget Advocacy Working Group (BAG) present findings on the bottlenecks to the disbursement of Government of Sierra Leone funds for health and water between 2010 and 2013.BAG found that there are bottlenecks in the disbursement of funds from the:

• Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) and the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEPWR);
• MoFED to local councils (LCs); and
• LCs to District Health Management Teams (DHMTs) and hospitals.

The flow of funds for health in Sierra Leone, from source to utilisationThe bottlenecks meant that disbursements to local councils were often late and below the amount allocated in the budget. For example, between 2010 and 2013, health funds were released an average of 4 months late. In 2013, 11% of budgeted health funds were not disbursed.Some of the causes of the bottlenecks included:

• Unavailability of funds
• The complexities of the disbursement process itself
• The financial management capacity of Finance Officers
• The absence of cash flow projections by MoFED
• Weak information flows between MoFED and LCs

These bottlenecks affected the delivery and quality of healthcare services in Sierra Leone.The report also identifies specific actions to support the effective release of funds to help improve health and water service delivery.To read the full report for free, click here.To read the policy brief summarising the key information, click here.There is also an accompanying factsheet which you can access here.Budget Advocacy Working Group (BAG). (2015). Bottlenecks in the Disbursement of Government of Sierra Leone Funds to Health and Water Resources Sectors 2010-2013. Freetown: BAG.