Health Budget for 2020, Small Increase, Failure to Implement Investment, Lack of Attention to Primary Health Care Service

  • The Health Budget for 2020, the year the country had to cope with a Pandemic, reached 39.625 billion Albanian Lekë or 320.85 Million Euro.
  • This final figure was reached after revisions made to the Planned Budget, including an additional 2.1 billion Albanian Lekë as part of the effort to cope with Covid-19.
  • While the total Spending for 2020 increased by 30.16 billion Albanian Lekë, the four Health Programs were only allocated an additional amount of 2.1 billion ALL.
  • Programs related directly with Health Care include: Primary Health Care Service; Secondary Health Care Service; Public Health Service, and the National Health Emergency Service.
  • An increase was marked for this year only for the Secondary Health Care Service, i.e., regional hospitals and the University Hospital Centre.
  • The Budget for the Primary Health Care Service, i.e., health care centres in urban and rural areas, was not implemented during 2020.
  • A comparison of the Current Expenditures (salaries and utilities) and Capital Investments and Assets (buildings and equipment) shows that 15.75% of the budget allocated for this purpose was not implemented.

All spendings incurred by the Health Budget Institutions during 2020 and onwards are accessible in the Treasury Transactions Section on the Spending Data Albania portal. Information is provided for each payment, including the date, description, paying institution, and beneficiary client. This, information about spendings by the University Hospital Center Mother Teresa QSUNT Ministry of Health, Shefqet Ndroqi Hospital Center, University Trauma Hospital and each health institution are published and can be accessed by searching, using search filters for Paying Institution, Category, Date, Client, and invoice description.

Capital Purchases and Investments for the Health Sector related to Covid 19 are listed with passports for each contract in the Transparent Procurement Database. For each procedure there is comprehensive information, including calls, deadlines, fund limit value, successful offers, appeals, and implementation.

Open Data (Open DataOpen PorcurementOpen Spending) on spending, payments, tenders, contracting, and other indicators, promote Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance.

Indicators and comprehensive data are published on Open Data Albania: Health Expenditures, State Budget for 2020, and the Covid-19 pandemic.