The Director in charge of Finance at the Ghana Health Service, Mrs. Ramatu Ude Umanta has advised accounting professionals to constantly update their knowledge in order to remain relevant and valuable to themselves and employers.
She observed that the necessity for continuous learning is as a result of the dynamic nature of Public Sector Accounting, saying laws, regulations, systems and processes are constantly being reviewed.
Mrs. Umanta was speaking at the 12th Annual Congress of the Health Accounting Staff Association of Ghana (HASAG) in Wa in the Upper West Region.
Mrs. Umanta indicated that the Ghana Health Service will continue to implement policies that will provide an enabling environment for all staff to deliver but added that the service will not tolerate any misconduct.
The Director of Finance said: “I can assure you that the Service will not tolerate or make any effort to come to the aid of anybody who misconducts himself or herself.
On the other hand, I will make sure that the Service will defend any finance staff who is treated unfairly”.
Touching on unity, Mrs. Umanta urged members of HASAG to do everything in the individual and collective capacities to foster unity towards a stronger HASAG that would serve members better.
She equally charged the Association to “follow due process in all issues and deal with issues amicably and fairly and above all, protect your individual integrity, that of the profession and the Service”.
The National President of HASAG, Sidik Mohammed Nuri Laskaya observed that there has been a paradigm shift in accounting and financial trends, pointing out that the trend has evolved from book-keeping where transactions were manually recorded to a current stage where through a click of a button, all books and accounts including analysis are generated.
He intimated that the state of affairs “calls for highly skilled health finance professional to cope with modern trends in e-transactions” and adding that members of HASAG have helped in the implementation of various electronic financial tools.
Mr. Laskaya described a wide gap in the remuneration of HASAG members on the single spine salary structure in relation to their counterparts in other public sector organizations as a major challenge.
The National President of HASAG complained about the treatment being meted out to casual accounting staff who are being paid from internally generated fund (IGF) some of whom have been engaged for 15 years.
“Naa Chaiman, we are sad that at the time when these people were engaged, people who were at that time in JSS, today who have graduated as graduates are being employed directly by the system without recourse to the IGF staff,” Mr. Laskaya complained.
A Deputy Director at the Regional Coordinating Council, Fati Koray who represented the Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih called for judicious use of resources in the health sector.
Quality primary and secondary healthcare lies on proper health financing of our health sector. Resources are limited and thus called for the need to ensure judicious use of financial resources at our disposal for proper functioning and efficient administration of the health sector.
The Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Osei Kuffour Afreh stated that accounting staff must avoid the delay in release of funds for urgent activities and also improve their inter-personal relationship as well as uphold professionalism and teamwork.
There were solidarity messages from Health Service Administrators, the Ghana Medical Association and Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG).
The Chief of Kulpong, Naa Abu Salia Bafarado who chaired the function hammered home the importance for the citizenry to rededicate themselves for the cause of the nation by challenging themselves.
The thrust of the Congress was “The Health Accounting Staff in the Era of Digitalization towards Universal Healthcare Delivery.”
Story by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
