A TOTAL of £380,000 has been taken from the government’s general reserve to fund the purchase of more personal protection equipment.
The move was authorised by Treasury Minister Susie Pinel last month, with masks and other materials due to be distributed across government departments and those working in healthcare – within both the public and charitable sectors.
According to a ministerial decision authorising the funding, the uncertainty about the future of the pandemic meant officials had not allocated money within the Government Plan for the supply of PPE. Instead, health bosses were told to make an application for additional equipment once it became clear that departments would not be able to pay for additional supplies from within their budgets.
The government’s general reserve is a fund designed to meet ‘unforeseen pressures’ or provide money for ‘urgent expenditure’.
According to information contained within the ministerial decision: ‘At the onset of the pandemic, surging international demand for PPE led to significant supply shortages. In response, ministers authorised the purchase of significant volumes of PPE to ensure that the government had sufficient equipment in stock to meet the Island’s essential PPE requirements for 90 days.
‘Anticipating the potential for changes to policy around stock holdings and for PPE usage requirements to evolve, the Government Plan 2021-24 did not allocate additional funding for PPE usage, or for the write-down of stock that is now expired or not fit for purpose and cannot be used or sold on.
‘It was expected that the [Health and Community Services] should first seek to make use of existing resources and to make an application to the Covid-19 Reserve once it became clear that costs in relation to PPE usage could not be absorbed within existing budgets.
It added: ‘Accordingly, it is now forecast that expenditure on PPE will require an additional budget allocation in 2021.’
