Planning and financing of RMNCH plus A under National Health Mission: A case study of the Gurugram District of Haryana State

Background: The Health Planning Process under National Health Mission (NHM) is participatory in nature and the State Programme Implementation Plan (PIP) is an aggregation of District PIPs which is examined and approved by the National Programme Coordination Committee (NPCC), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Many times there are delays in releasing of Record of Proceedings (ROPs)/approvals. This affects utilisation of NHM funds at district level and below and desired outcomes are not achieved. The present study aims to analyse the process of fund flow, disbursement and utilisation of funds on various components under Reproductive Maternal New born Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) in the district Gurugram. Methodology: The study was conducted in the District Gurugram of Haryana State, India. One Community Health Centres (CHCs), two Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and four Sub Health Centres were randomly selected. Primary and secondary data were collected in the study. Medical Officer (I/C), Accounts Staff and Health Workers were interviewed using separate schedules regarding process of disbursement, delays in release and utilisation of funds. Separate checklists were prepared to collect data on availability and utilisation of funds at District, CHC and PHC levels under different components of programme. Findings: Study found that PIP is prepared with inputs from Block level but community participation at (PHC) and below was not present. There was a delay in reaching funds to district due to delayed release of ROPs. Almost 30%-40% of the budget could not be utilised due to delay in receiving of budget. Utilisation of funds was less in some programme activities due to vacant positions project staff. Only 38% and 31% of the funds were utilised under the child health and family planning budget head for the district of Gurugram in the year 2016-17. Accounts staffs were overburdened which affected monitoring of funds utilisation. Budget release from State to District and below was through e-Banking. Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) at Sub centre used to get Untied Funds at the end of third quarter. The Government introduced new 18 broad budget heads in NHM Budget for improving utilisation of budget. Conclusion: Delayed release of ROPs and erroneous estimation of budget under the programme, very rigid and large number of budget heads poses challenges of understanding and analysing expenditure and affects utilisation of funds under the NHM. Moreover, vacant positions in the programme, unrealistic planning, weak community participation in planning of expenditure and unexplained budget cut in ROPs were main challenges faced by the District.