Officials continue to steal funds needed for fixing
dilapidated hospitals and providing drugs
In this first part of our series on the utilisation
of the yearly $1billion for Millennium Development Goals' projects, we investigate
the monumental corruption in the health ministry. We found that rather than
help, the ministry is actually killing the country's hope of achieving the MDGs
Massive corruption in various ministries, departments and agencies
(MDAs) are the main reasons Nigeria will not achieve her Millennium Development
Goals (MDG) targets, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation has revealed.
Between 2006 and 2008, MDAs such as the health ministry, water resources
ministry and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA)
mismanaged hundreds of billions of naira meant to specifically help Nigeria
achieve the MDG targets.
While public officials mismanaged the MDG funds described by a senior
civil servant as “free money,” President Goodluck Jonathan sits on a report
indicting these officials and their collaborating contractors.
The most culpable of these MDAs is the health ministry, which according
to official government investigators “is the main impediment to achieving the
MDGs related to health.”
Obatunde Oladapo of the “Treatment Action Movement,” an NGO dedicated to
helping people living with HIV/AIDS, is so enraged by the blatant stealing of
funds meant to treat sick people and save more Nigerians from dying from
treatable diseases that he only stopped short of cursing the thieves. He said
they were feasting on “blood money” that will haunt them forever.
Stealing from the sick
When Aisosa Asemota was diagnosed with HIV in 2009, he believed his days
on earth were numbered. He was told at the University of Benin Teaching
hospital in Edo State where he was diagnosed that his immune system was
weakened and that he was therefore more susceptible to other
diseases.
So when his skin itched continuously in January 2012, he went to the
same hospital. However, the doctors there told him that he was only entitled to
free anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). To treat his scabies, doctors prescribed
other drugs, particularly 100ml benzyl benzoate for treatment. “I bought the
benzyl benzoate for 180 naira. I used it with the other drugs I bought; and
after a few days, I became okay,” the 34-year-old bus driver stated.
While Mr. Asemota bought his benzyl benzoate in a neighbourhood pharmacy
for N180, the officials in the health ministry, which bought in bulk, quoted
and bought the same drug for government hospitals at “scandalously
ridiculous” amounts.
The Benzyl Benzoate fraud
As part of efforts to help in the treatment of HIV aids victims, the
Federal Ministry of Health in 2008 bought benzyl benzoate to be distributed to
hospitals across the country.
While the 100ml benzyl benzoate costs a maximum 200 naira in the retail
market, officials in the health ministry claim they purchased each unit of the
drug for N119,000, which is 59,400 per cent higher than the amount for which
Mr. Asemota bought the same drug.
The drug, used in treating scabies and other skin ailments, is one of
the items bought by the ministry in 2008 at a total cost of N5.4 billion.
Since a carton of the drug contains 24 bottles of 100ml benzyl benzoate,
544 cartons, which the ministry bought, could only have cost a maximum N2.6
million. The ministry however paid N64.7 million for it, with N62 million
perhaps going into private pockets of officials and their collaborators.
“That is ridiculous, how can anybody buy it (benzyl benzoate) for that
amount?” said Emmanuel Osigwe, a pharmacist who runs a pharmacy in Garki,
Abuja.
This purchase troubled independent monitors who ordered that “the
purchase of 100ml benzyl benzoate suspension at N119,000 when it costs less
than N200 in the market should be flagged.”
The money used for this purchase is part of the funds meant to help
Nigeria achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Achieving the MDGs
Although world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration
in September 2000 in New York, it was not until 2005 that the Nigerian
government effectively signed on to the initiative, making a well-publicised
commitment to achieving the MDGs by 2015.
In a deal negotiated by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former World Bank Managing
Director and Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Nigeria secured debt relief from the
Paris club of creditors in 2005. Nigeria paid $12bn of the $30bn owed the Paris
Club while the remaining $18bn was cancelled. The country then pledged to
devote $1bn annually to achieving the MDGs. The amount was what was then being
used to service the Paris club debt annually.
In other to ensure efficiency and proper management, the President
established the Office of the Senior Special Adviser to the President on MDGs
(OSSAP-MDGs) whose mandate was to oversee the spending of the amount on
projects that would aid the realization of the MDGs targets. This office was
held by Amina Az-Zubair
To ensure probity and accountability, Mrs. Az-Zubair set up a Monitoring
and Evaluation team to monitor the MDG projects executed with the funds.
What the monitoring team found is shocking and heart-rending. . Between
2007 and 2010, the team found that different ministries, departments and agencies,
mismanaged a larger chunk of the N320billion allocated to achieving the MDGs
between 2006 and 2008.
The Ministry of Health fraud
As part of an ongoing investigation into the (mis)management of the MDG
funds, PREMIUM TIMES found that the health ministry mismanaged most of the
N54billion it received between 2006 and 2008 under the MDG scheme.
Goals 4 ( Reducing child mortality), 5 (Improving maternal health), and
6 (Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) are directly related to
health. For this reason, the Ministry of Health was allocated N21.3bn in 2006,
N16.17 billion in 2007, and 16.9billion in 2008.
But rather than applying the funds for the purposes they were earmarked,
officials of the Ministry and its agencies stole a large portion and then
mismanaged what was left, investigations reveal. Several projects including
construction of clinics, purchase of drugs and hospital equipment, and capacity
building of health staff across the country, suffered as a result.
Other examples of fraud
Apart from inflation of prices which characterized the Ministry of
Health's purchases, several examples of how the ministry managed its funds
abound.
Following complaints, by several (public) hospitals in Nigeria, of lack
of injections, the health ministry decided to buy injections in bulk for
distribution nationwide. Over N900million was released, through the National
Programme on Immunization, but most of the materials purportedly bought were
never supplied. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
This was confirmed in March 2008 when the M&E team submitted its
report for 2006.
“Of the N1bn approved for buying syringes, N901.6mn was spent. A
large quantity of syringes paid for had not been delivered. These included
2,854,000 BCG syringes; 24,000,000 1ml disposable syringes; 1,000,000 5ml
reconstitution syringes; 52,092,835 0.5ml auto-disposable syringes and 49,261
safety boxes,” the report stated.
Another example of money spent without materials delivered was in the
purchase of solar freezers meant to store drugs and other materials. While the
ministry released N200million for 250 solar freezers in 2006, only 65 were
delivered.
A senior official of the ministry told PREMIUM TIMES it was normal for
contractors to under-deliver goods when they had adequately “settled” top
officials.
“See, to get contract in this ministry or any other one, you must settle
very well. So, if a contractor knows he has settled very well, he can choose to
under-deliver since he is sure nobody will complain as everyone has been
settled,” the source, who does not want to be named, for fear of being
victimized, said.
A culture of misinformation
In other to hide the corruption in the expenditure of the MDG funds, the
Federal Ministry of Health decided to manipulate information and forge documents
of purchases given to the independent monitors.
An example of this was in the expenditure of N1.089bn meant for the
Family Health Division (FHD) of the ministry. The money was to be used to
purchase medical supplies including mama kits for distribution across the
country
When the monitors asked for details of the purchases, the ministry told
them that they had procured and supplied 45,105 mama kits. Further scrutiny of
the purchase and distribution records however revealed that only 31,171 were
procured and distributed.
When the M&E team sought reasons for this misinformation, the
ministry was not forthcoming with any.
Frustrating investigation and monitoring
In other to ensure that the misappropriation and illegalities in the ministry
are not exposed, officials decided to frustrate the activities of the M&E
team, by withholding information from monitors.
This withholding of information was characteristic of the ministry in
all the years its activities were monitored.
In its report for 2006, which was submitted in 2008, the M&E team
stated that “the FMOH and its MDAs need to be more serious in implementing
budgets they defended and more responsive to requests for information by the
M&E team.”
The ministry however continued to withhold information from the monitors
up till 2010 when the report for the 2008 expenditure was submitted. This made
the M&E team to state in its report for 2008 that “the major
challenge in the 2008 M&E exercise as in 2006 and 2007 was accessing timely
information to verify implementation and assess outcomes.”
“The M&E team inevitably concluded that MDAs (Health Ministry and
departments under it) refused to give information either because they were
hiding something, or because they had got away with withholding information in
previous years (of M&E).”
Health ministry an impediment
In a public document whose forward was written by President Goodluck
Jonathan and titled “Nigeria Millennium Development Goals Report 2010,” the
Federal Government admitted that “None of the MDGs
are certain to be achieved.” The report also showed that the MDGs related to
health had an average or weak potential of being achieved by 2010.
Although the Federal Government failed to elaborate
on who is to blame for the potential non-achievement of the health-related
MDGs, the scale of mismanagement and inefficiency at the Federal Ministry of
Health caused independent monitors to conclude that the ministry is the
greatest impediment to achieving the MDGs.
“The most important lesson learnt was that the projects and programmes
implemented by the FMoH procurement division performed poorly. This has been a
consistent finding of the M&E since 2006.” The M&E team stated as
part of its conclusion in the 2008 report.
“The FMoH is the main impediment to achieving the MDGs related to
health,” it concluded while recommending that funds should be halted to the
ministry while health-related projects should be funded through a different
scheme and agency.
Blame the President
Despite the mismanagement of MDG funds in the health ministry, no
official of the ministry or project contractor has been questioned or
prosecuted.
Jibrin Ibrahim, the national coordinator of the Centre for Democracy and
Development believes the president is to blame for the continuous mismanagement
and non-performance of projects associated with the MDGs, as official reports
of the mismanagement have been sent to the President.
“What we expect the government to do is to follow up on this
non-performance. Our own position is that this report goes to the President.
The president is the person who has final authority to follow up on these
issues, and what should happen is that those that are not performing should be
investigated,” he said.
“I don't see why the anti-corruption agencies shouldn't investigate
these people,” said Mr. Ibrahim, whose organisation was part of the M&E
team.
Apart from the official M&E report, the Bureau for Public
Procurement, which monitors purchases by MDAs also carried out its own investigations
and found some ministries culpable of misappropriation.
“The Bureau did a Procurement Audit in 2008 and
forwarded the report to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for
investigation,” said Segun Imohiosen, the Bureau’s spokesman.
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on MDG,
Precious Gbeneol wouldn’t respond to PREMIUM TIMES enquiry, even though it was
her office that disbursed the stolen funds, and should render account.
After several calls and text messages to Mrs.
Gbeneol, her spokesperson, Kene Offie requested a formal letter of enquiry.
Several weeks after the letter was sent and despite repeated visits, phone
calls and text messages, we got no written response. Mr. Offie, later explained that
the office had stopped giving funds to indicted MDAS.
“When MDAs have been found to have performed abysmally in implementation
of budgets, OSSAP MDGs has stopped such MDAs of any further budgetary provision
until the issues leading to poor performance are resolved,” she said.
Ministry keeps mum
Despite repeated request for information and clarification from the
Ministry of Health, its officials refused to comment.
Yusuf Isiaka, the Deputy Director Media in the ministry is yet to
respond to our enquiry several months after they were submitted to him in the
format he requested. Mr. Isiaka requested a formal letter of our
questions after listening to them.
Although the letter was sent to the Ministry through him in November
last year, several visits to the ministry and repeated phone calls yielded no
results as Mr. Isiaka kept saying “you know we are very busy.”
While the billions of naira spent on purchase of drugs and other medical
supplies by the health ministry remain unaccounted for, and its officials
refuse to comment, Nigerians like Mr. Asemota still find it difficult to get
basic medical supplies such as injections and drugs from public hospitals.
“Since I was diagnosed of HIV, I always go to them (University of Benin
Teaching hospital) for any sickness. Most times however, I still buy my
injections and drugs from chemist outside the hospital,” Mr. Asemota said.
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