Authorities focus of agreement

By HELEN TARAWA
THE Department of Health is working on a partnership agreement for the provincial health authorities (PHA) and district development authorities (DDA) to work together.
Secretary Pasco Kase (pictured), commenting on the possibility of PHAs and DDAs duplicating responsibities, told The National that the department considered the DDAs a plus.
“For us in health, we don’t see any issues with the new entity that is being put in place, the district development authority,” he said.
“There are no issues with the introduction of the DDAs, we see it as a plus also that DDAs can work alongside with PHAs.
PHA has its mandate over health service delivery management, planning and service delivery.
DDAs have their roles, they are given certain functions to manage the district and provincial services improvement programmes and infrastructure kind of work.
“Health has a need for infrastructure as well, so our people are now being advised and told to work together with the DDAs,” Kase said.
“We very much welcome the district development authorities, we have now put a mechanism in place, a partnership agreement which we are sharing with other government departments, especially the department of Provincial and Local Government Affairs as well as the Central Agencies Coordinating Committee.
“We don’t see any duplication, we can work side by side, as long as health managers can plan for the infrastructure needs, they pass the plan over to the DDAs for the budget finance
support and the construction.
“PHAs is coming together of two different entities, the provincial health
division and the hospital in the province.
“In relation to the delays for the establishment of the PHAs the onus was on the respective provinces.”