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The government proposes to allocate an additional NOK 200 million to the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) next year.
– Why, as a shop steward, are you still concerned about the economy?
To understand this, one must imagine FHI in two parts, the part that now works intensively with the crown and the rest of FHI. The ordinary functioning of FHI, which does not work with corona, is in difficulties, both in terms of budget and personnel, says FHI’s chief union official, Marc Gayorfar.
Cuts of fear
He believes that the corona pandemic has been a double-edged sword for FHI.
– On the one hand, there are new allocations and fresh funds. This is good for the part of the organization that is related to covid-19, or it can be reassigned to become such. On the other hand, he believes that there are not enough resources in the organization to handle both the crown and all the other tasks that FHI has.
Gayorfar notes that a large portion of the FHI assignment is earmarked for crown-related work. The state budget proposal for 2021 stipulates:
- NOK 46 million for the FHI infection monitoring team.
- NOK 94.1 million is earmarked for increased covid-19 preparedness and efforts.
- NOK 30 million are earmarked for running the vaccination program.
NIPH: large geographic differences in the spread of infection
At the same time, the government’s debureaucratization cut of 0.5 percent will continue, rising to around 7 million in 2021.
– There must be big reprioritizations, and of that there is no doubt. The “worst case” scenario is that tasks need to be frozen or cut, and those working with long-term tasks may end up being redundant, Gayorfar says.
Tax cuts
In addition to infection control, FHI is responsible for everything from poison information to the national water guard. They also have the primary responsibility for promoting information to improve Norwegian public health. It can be about everything from environmental toxins to tobacco and other drugs, but also mental health. And he investigates everything from violence and abuse to suicide.
Overall, the chief shop steward believes that NIPH must now prepare to cover NOK 90 million in so-called budget challenges.
– What evidence do you have to affirm that there will be cuts of that magnitude?
– These are summed figures from FHI’s budget, based on the budget challenges presented there. 40-50 million of them are related to internal needs informed by thematic areas, mainly related to recruitments that are not related to covid-19. 40 million are other costs, investment needs and cuts in relation to the bureaucratization and efficiency reform (ABE), says Gayorfar.
Since 2015, the so-called ABE reform has resulted in annual cuts of between 0.5 and 0.8 percent in operating expenses for all state-owned companies.
For the three-year period 2016-2018, FHI was required to cut around NOK 165 million, as a result of the ABE cut, writes Dagens Medisin.
– Unfinished
The assistant director of FHI, Gun Peggy Knudsen, clarifies the cut figures that Gayorfar estimates.
– Is 90 million a misleading number to use?
Here’s what FHI says about Halloween
– This figure does not reflect the department’s overall budget challenge or cuts for budget year 2021. The figure takes into account the priority wishes of the areas. It has not been completed and in that sense we do not fully agree with that presentation, says Knudsen.
– But he has an estimate of 40-50 million specific internal discussions on budget challenges. Do you reject that figure?
– I don’t want to call it budget challenges. These 40-50 million are related to proposals for a priority strengthening of certain activities. There is also uncertainty associated with some of the cost estimates, says the FHI assistant director, adding:
– This is the cost associated with the reported needs of the various areas and the desires for internal prioritization. Going from there to saying that there will be cuts is wrong.
