Presidency has blamed budgetary constraints, including poor releases of budgeted funds for the poor state of medical facilities currently being experienced at the State House Clinic, Abuja.
The Permanent Secretary, State House, Jalal Arabi’s explanation came on the heels of recent media focus on the clinic followed revelations by the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari that the clinic lack basic facilities, including syringes, drugs and other basic requirements.
The revelation has also attracted the attention of the National Assembly, which has commenced the probe into funds allocated to the clinic.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day Stakeholders meeting on RMNCAH+N – Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition, organized by her pet project, Future Assured, Aisha Buhari had challenged managers of the clinic to explain how funds budgeted has been managed.
“If somebody like Mr. President can spend several months outside Nigeria, then you wonder what will happen to a common man on the street in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago I was sick as well, they advised me to take the first flight out to London I refused to go. I said I must be treated in Nigeria because there is a budget for an assigned clinic to take care of us.
“If the budget is N100 million, we need to know how the budget is spent. Along the line I insisted they call Aso Clinic to find out if the X-tray machine is working, they said it is not working. They didn’t know I am the one that was suppose to be in that hospital at that very time.
“I had to go to a hospital that was established by foreigners in and out 100 percent. What does that mean?
“So I think is high time for us to do the right thing. If something like this can happen to me no need for me to ask the governors wives what is happening in their states. This is Abuja and this is the highest seat of government, and this is presidential villa. One of the speakers have already said we have very good policies in Nigeria, in fact we have the best policies in Africa. Yes of course we have but the implementation has been the problem.”
Government had reacted by saying that the centre which provides medical services to the President, Vice-President and their families, aides, members of staff of the State House and other entitled public servants, as well as training facility for house officers and other medical personnel, will be commercialized.
He stated that the State House Medical Centre (SHMC), which currently offers free medical services to patients, will be repositioned to offer qualitative and efficient services.
But according to the statement signed by Deputy Director of Information, state House, Atttah Esa, on Sunday, Presidency denied that the State House Medical Centre had received as much as N11.01billion as appropriation for the period 2015-2017.
The statement also explained that contrary to media reports, the clinic got zero allocation in the 2017 budget.
Arabi,explained that” contrary to the above claims, out of the total Capital Appropriation of N2,941,062,044.00 and Recurrent Appropriation of N465,935,358.00 for the period under reference, only the sum of N969,681,821.53 (representing 32.97%) for Capital and N225,575,200.60 (representing 48.41%) for Recurrent was actually released.”
According to him” It may interest the public to know that there was zero capital allocation for the Medical Centre in 2017, while out of the N331,730,211.00 being recurrent appropriation for 2017, the actual amount released up to September was N91,370,053.60 (representing only 27.54%).”
The Permanent Secretary emphasised that the above figures are verifiable from the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
He also observed that during the three-year period under review (indeed two years since no capital allocation for 2017), and despite the shortfalls between budgetary provisions and actual releases, the Medical Centre continued to provide free services to the over 10,000 registered patients annually. In addition, the Centre has continued to execute on-going projects.
Giving further insight into the scope of the Medical Centre’s clientele, Arabi stressed that apart from the Presidency, other beneficiaries of the free services include political appointees, the military, para-military, other security agencies, members of the National Assembly, and the general public.
In the words of the Permanent Secretary, “Considering the unrestricted patronage base and free services of the State House Medical Centre, coupled with the funding hiccups and periodic receipts, it may not be far-fetched to notice gaps between demand and supply of medical equipment and consumables at certain stages of the budget circle.”
Recall that in the 2016 budget, the State House Medical Centre was allocated N3.219 billion including capital allocation for the completion of ongoing work as well as procurement of drugs and other medical equipment.
But in the 2017 budget, the sum of N331.7 million, representing recurrent allocation was provided for in the budget.
TONY AILEMEN, Abuja
