|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Emmanuel Ombuwgadu, chairman, House Committee on Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria Control has called for immediate prosecution of officials of Federal Ministry of Health and National Council for Control of Aids (NACA).
Ombuwgadu gave the charge while reacting to the sum of N4.8billion provided for OIG refund and Counterpart Funding for Global Fund as subhead in the 2017 budget proposal of Federal Ministry of Health.
The sum of $5.4 million was part of the Global Fund grant released to Nigeria for the implementation of intervention programme.
According to the lawmaker, Global Fund had petitioned the Presidency on the allegation and advised government to look into the allegation, before announcing the suspension of further grants to Nigeria.
“In the 8th Assembly, budget defence has changed from a mere routine exercise to a serious business. This necessitated by obvious systemic failures arising from hitherto weak oversight by the National Assembly over our respective institutions.
“The result of his gap is well obvious for all to see; poor implementation of budgets, duplication of funding sources for same projects and in some cases, misapplication of public funds by those entrusted with this sacred mandate.
“That Nigeria is paying back over $5.4 million to the Global Fund alone this year, as captured in our budget, for which the culprits have not been punished, is indicative of this systemic weakness.
“Unfortunately, even while we seek innovative ways of funding the health sector, especially at primary health care level, there has been obvious poor absorptive capacity by various government and non-government entities implementing key health projects in the country.
“This applies to the Global Fund grant, where we have not been able to implement more than 65 percent of the funded projects. We cannot continue on the same trajectory of weak project governance and poor implementation and expect to achieve greater results. We just have to change our modus operandi, or we would be left behind,” he noted.
The lawmaker who expressed concern over the plight of millions of Nigerians who were deprived of the services, however called for re-evaluation of NACA’s mandate.
“Part of the change dynamics would require NACA to re-evaluate how it has been operating, in a bid to engender greater effectiveness and efficiency. To this end, the agency should begin to focus on her key mandate – coordination.
“NACA shoudl have no business implementing projects. I expect, in the light of the foregoing that NACA should cede the implementation of HIV/AIDS treatment and related activities in Abia and Taraba states to NASCAP, who have a better comparative advantage in addition to being statutorily empowered to do so. NACA should focus on coordinating the national multi-sectoral response, while allowing relevant stakeholders to focus on their core competencies,” Ombuwgadu urged.
