Will Health Grants to Local Governments by the Fifteenth Finance Commission Eventually Become a Victim of Mission Creep Syndrome?

Abstract

While the health grants to local governments recommended by Fifteenth Union Finance Commission in the wake of Covid 19 pandemic lays emphasis on the trust-based approach to local governments and decentralization of health, the danger of Mission Creep can undo the potential and effectiveness of the grants to strengthen the primary health care sector. Lack of sensitization towards local governments; the misconception that local governments and its stakeholders are illiterate, weak and corrupt entities; absence of an institutional monitoring mechanism to conduct a follow-up of the recommendations made by the respective Finance Commissions; lack of co-ordination between various Ministries of union and state governments; and the erosion of cooperative federalism can all contribute to health grants falling prey to the vicious cycle of Mission Creep Syndrome.