Buhari was Aware of Rot in Aso Rock Clinic – CMD

Fri, Oct 20, 2017 | By publisher


Health

 

OVER a year before the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, publicly criticised the management of the State House Medical Centre, SMHC, for not having basic facilities, the head of the hospital had written her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, complaining about the poor funding of the hospital.

In a letter written to Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, on October 3, the chief medical director, Hussain Munir, made reference to the letter he wrote Mr. Buhari on August 22, 2016, as well as two other ones he wrote to other officials in 2015 and 2016 including Kyari.

According to the October 3, letter, all those correspondence centred on the inadequate funding of the hospital including non-provision of funds for basic necessities such as drugs.

Munir indicated that out of N290.4 million approved for the purchase of drugs and consumables for the SHMC in 2017, only N29 million has been spent with no amount spent on capital projects.

Munir, who was responding to a recent report by Daily Trust Newspaper on how state house clinic patients groan over drug scarcity, said the hospital has been facing challenges of drugs availability since 2016.

The director also said out of the N3.8 billion approved for the clinic in 2016, only N25 million was spent on drugs that year, a lesser amount compared to the N73 million and N63 million expended on same item in 2015 and 2014, respectively.

It is not clear if the amounts spent on drugs, referenced by Munir, is the total released for that purpose by the administrations in those years.

However, the presidency on Sunday admitted the hospital was underfunded saying it received N1.2 billion (N1, 195,257, 021) between 2015 and 2017, as expenditure.

The Permanent Secretary, State House, Jalal A. Arabi who also confirmed there was zero capital allocation for the hospital in 2017 said, “while out of the N331 million being recurrent appropriation for 2017, the actual amount released up to September was N91million (representing only 27.54 per cent).”

Arabi emphasised that the figures are verifiable from the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning.

The Permanent Secretary, State House, Jalal A. Arabi who also confirmed there was zero capital allocation for the hospital in 2017 said, “while out of the N331 million being recurrent appropriation for 2017, the actual amount released up to September was N91million (representing only 27.54 per cent).”

Arabi emphasised that the figures are verifiable from the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning. – PremiumTimes

 

– Oct 20, 2017 @ 13:00 GMT |

 

Tags: