*Says clinic has zero budget for 2017, still offer free services
The Presidency has finally reacted to the reports, which put capital allocation to State House Medical Centre at N11.01 billion as appropriation for it between the 2015 through 2017 period, saying the medical centre did not actually received up to what was reported for the period.
A statement by a Deputy Director of Information in the Presidency, Attah Esa, quoted the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal A. Arabi, to have said.
The statement said the State House Medical Centre only received 33 percent of its capital allocation for the period being reported.
“The attention of the Presidency has been drawn to recent media reports suggesting that the State House Medical Centre had received N11.01 billion as appropriation for the period 2015-2017,” the statement said.
According to the Permanent Secretary, State House, Jalal A. Arabi, “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.”
Arabi also said “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 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,” the statement said.
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.”
The House of Representatives two days ago resolved to investigate the N11.01 billion State House Clinic’s budgets under former President Goodluck Jonathan and President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to the lawmakers, the N11.01billion represents budgets of the clinic in the last three years.
The resolution followed a motion titled “Need to investigate the deplorable condition of the State House Clinic and the alleged deductions from the salaries and allowances of the medical staff” by Henry Archibong (PDP, Akwa Ibom).
Leading the debate on the motion, Archibong, who said that the clinic had, over the years, been receiving annual budgetary allocations to procure equipment to function optimally, noted that in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Appropriation Acts, the clinic was allocated the sums of N3.94 billion, N3.87 billion and N3.2 billion for upgrade and provision of necessary drugs and equipment.
He said that despite the huge budgetary allocations, the clinic lacked necessary facilities such as syringes, drugs and equipment needed to save lives, as observed by the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari recently.
Mrs. Buhari had lamented publicly during a stakeholders’ meeting her inability to access even the simplest drugs at the State House Clinic.
In the meantime, the Presidency’s statement has put a question mark on the information provided by the House of Representatives, which only through an independent investigation a satisfactory answer can be provided for.
