She made the request on Tuesday as MINISANTE and associated institutions presented the draft budget of 2019/2020 fiscal year to the Parliamentary Public Accountant Committee.
Dr. Gashumba said that building health sector infrastructures is supplemented with renovations needed to preserve the facilities.
“The allocated budget is still small. We can’t build new facilities and forget to renovate existing ones,” she revealed.
Minister Gashumba explained that there is a gap of Rwf 700 million in the budget allocated to the health sector.
“We were allocated Rwf 598 million and still have the gap of Rwf 700 million for such urgent issue,” she said.
Dr. Gashumba highlighted that the budget allocated to MINISANTE to renovate hospitals and building other health infrastructure is inadequate.
“Experts in the construction sector told us that there are no problems in first days after completion of buildings because renovation activities are under responsibilities of the contractor,” stressed Gashumba.
She said in the second year after completion of new facilities, there should be a reserve of at least between 1 and 2% of the budget spent on construction allocated for maintenance activities.
“It means, considering the percentage of money spent to build the hospitals, at least Rwf 45 million up to Rwf 90 million should be provided for maintenance other than giving us Rwf 17 million,” said Minister Gashumba.
She revealed that advice from experts suggest 2.5% of the money spent on construction activities in case a facility has existed between 6 to 10 years for maintenance. Beyond 10 years, renovate budget should be at least 5%.
“The budget is still small. Building without provisioning the budget for renovation is useless. We want you to conduct advocacy on this issue,” said Minister Gashumba.
The parliament promised MINISANTE continuous collaboration to improve the draft budget so it can address Rwandans needs.
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