The reason the health service is struggling with debt, and public sector staffing requirements aren’t fulfilled has much to do with government ‘overspending’ in the 2018 State Budget.
UTAO, the ‘budgetary support unit’, has revealed that the move to ‘unfreeze’ public sector salaries in 2018 actually cost the State almost four times the amount forecast – explaining this has caused knock-on problems within various services of public administration.
Said the unit: “an excessively centralised management doesn’t meet persistent budgetary needs, which translates, for example, in difficulties in replacing workers and the accumulation of debt by the SNS (national health service)”.
