LAHORE, Feb 13: The Punjab government has objected to modalities suggested by the federal government to provincialize the Population Welfare Programme.

The federal cabinet had decided to de-federalize the Population Welfare Programme (PWP) in April last year to mandate the provincial health infrastructures to offer family planning service through their outlets.

Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf had decided that the PWP employees would be provincialized through an amendment to the Transfer of PWP (field activities) Ordinance, 1983, whereafter they would become provincial civil servants. The CE had also decided that the programme would be funded through the Federal Public Sector Development Programme (FPSDP) up to 2003. For funding beyond 2003, it was decided that suitable provisions should be made in the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.

Following this decision, the finance ministry made an allocation of Rs1.74 billion in the FPSDP for the current financial year. Out of this allocation, the Punjab Population Welfare Department (PPWD) received a budget provision of Rs662 million.

The Punjab government had taken a stance that the federal government should continue to fund the PWP beyond 2003. It had demanded that the programme should be funded up to the year 2010 including any subsequent expansion in its development activities.

On provincialization of the PWP, the Punjab government had also demanded that the administrative restructuring and implementation process should be left to the provinces.

The Punjab government had also proposed that all federal government employees working in the provinces should remain as federal government employees and their legal status should not be changed. However, in order to implement the programme effectively, administrative powers including the powers under the efficiency and discipline rules should be devolved to the provinces. It also said that all liabilities including payment of pension and gratuity, and any contingent liability arising from the development and non-development activities of the department should be borne by the federal government.

The Punjab also urged the federal government to review the de-federalization of the programme to integrate and devolve family health and population welfare activities on the district governments to harmonize it with the devolution plan 2001.

Commenting on the points raised by the Punjab government, Federal Population Welfare Minister Dr Attiya Inayatullah had reportedly said that the Punjab government had raised pertinent matters.

With regard to the funding of the programme beyond 2003 whereafter the responsibility for financing would shift to the provinces through the NFC Award, she had reportedly suggested that the Punjab government should include its observations in the Punjab Memorandum for NFC.

It was learnt the federal population welfare ministry had also called a conclusive meeting of all provinces’ health ministers and secretaries to culminate the year-long process of inter-provincial consultations to take decisions on administrative and fiscal transfers, de-federalization and devolution to the districts on Feb 16 (Saturday).

It may be mentioned that the ministry of population welfare had communicated modalities of transfer of staff and future funding to the provincial governments in pursuance of the devolution decision by the CE.

It was learnt the ministry of population welfare had decided that the PWDs would be funded through the FPSDP up to 2003 and thereafter through the NFC Award. In case the NFC Award was not finalizaed, it said, the funding shall continue through the FPSDP.

The ministry said the Finance Division (FD) would indicate one line budget allocation for the PWP, while the PWDs would chalk out their component-wise budget within the indicated allocation made by the FD. It also said that the provinces would show these transfer grants as receipts from the federal government to be utilized for implementation of the programme.

As the programme was financed out of the development budget through FPSDP, the same, on its provincialization would require to be reflected in the provincial ADP during the current financial year as well as in the subsequent years.

The population welfare ministry in consultation with Planning and Development and Finance Divisions would intimate the size of respective federal grants for provincial PWDs from the next financial year (2002-2003). The provincial PWDs would prepare their component-wise budget allocation within the proposed amount given as grant by the federal government. “The population welfare ministry shall get these budgets authenticated by the FD and shall return to the provincial PWDs. The PWDs will then prepare their detailed budget by object classification, making it as part of their ADPs,” it said.

The Punjab government had also responded to the population welfare ministry modalities by saying that these modalities tend to shift the entire burden of the programme on the provinces. Indeed, the Punjab government said, it was imperative that a continuous support was provided by the federal government for the programme to make it sustainable and successful.

It was also learnt that the population welfare ministry had recently said that the notification to transfer the services of employees to the provincial government would be issued by the federal government, the transferring authority.

It said the funds were proposed to be transferred to the provincial AGs till April 1 this year. Since the utilization of funds was at the peak in the last quarter of the financial year, the ministry said that it was of the view that this arrangement should be made effective from the next financial year.

It was learnt that the Feb 16 meeting would also require that the ministry of health and provincial PHDs should accept ownership of the activity to contribute to population stabilization.

It was learnt that the family planning service delivery, being a primary healthcare (PHC) function, would focus the delivery of family planning service through the newly developed Family Health Worker (FHW) cadre and deliver the performance indicators agreed with the population welfare ministry. It may be mentioned that the vertical cadre of female community workers was merged into the family planning in the PHC Project. The FHW cadre currently stood at 70,000 workers and provided the nationwide female health workers base. The FHWs were focusing on provision of family planning, child health and safe motherhood services at the doorstep.

Recognizing the imperative of load, the meeting was also expected to take a decision that all health department infrastructures would provide family planning services as per performance indicators mutually agreed between ministries of population welfare, health and provincial health departments.

The population ministry also expected that all the PHDs should assume responsibility for making a contribution to 1.9 per cent population growth rate (PGR) by 2003. The estimated performance at present, it was learnt, was five per cent to 10 per cent of the expected. The work plans would, therefore, incrementally move upward family planning service delivery.

The population welfare ministry wanted all provincial health departments to mandate all primary healthcare infrastructure from tehsil hospitals to FHWs to provide FP services. It also wanted health training institutes to train the medic and paramedic health staff in family planning. According to a World Bank report, approximately 75 per cent of female staff of health departments was trained and contraception included in all academic training of medics and paramedics.

The ministry said that the contraceptive requirements for all outlets should be prepared by the provincial health departments but procured by the ministry. The condoms and oral pills should be sold at the ministry’s subsidized prices, it said.

The ministry also wanted health departments to devise effective feedback and monitoring mechanisms and provide periodic reports on family planning service delivery to the ministry.