Global donors to the healthcare sector in Nigeria have expressed displeasure at the way donor funds for health care were utilized in the past.
This is even as President Muhammadu Buhari while receiving a team led by Seth Berkley, Chief Executive Officer of Gavi and The Global Fund in State House, Abuja, assured that lapses that have characterized Nigeria as a nation would be corrected.
A statement signed by Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina after the meeting, said Berkley who noted that the three focal points of the Buhari administration; security, economic development, and anti-corruption were critical to the future of Nigeria, raised issues over the way donor funds for health care were utilized in the past.
According to him Gavi and the Global Fund were disappointed when forensic audit revealed systemic weaknesses and corruption in the utilization of funds given in the past, adding that there is now a “breath of fresh air” under President Buhari’s leadership and fight against corruption and they were willing to “close the books of the past, and look into future support.”
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria had early in the year suspended payments to Nigeria’s AIDS agency over evidence that $3.8 million was misappropriated by its workers and consultants
between 2010 and 2014.
A report by the fund’s inspector general had said the fraud continued because the National Agency for the Control of AIDS did not carry out proper audits.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 170 million, has the highest number of people infected with AIDS after South Africa.
Last year, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization had also accused the Ministry of Health officials of misappropriating funds during an audit of 40 percent of the $29 million it spent in Nigeria between 2011 and 2013. Nigeria is reported to have repaid GAVI $2.2 million.
President Buhari in his response said he was impressed with the patience and steadfastness of leading supporters of health care in Nigeria, “despite our shortcomings as a nation” and assured that his administration will do all it can to make things right.
“We are making genuine efforts to correct the lapses. We are very serious about people behaving themselves, and being accountable,” the President said.
“We thank you for deciding to re-engage with us, despite our inefficiencies. You decided to be here, not minding our shortcomings. There are other countries that would bring less problems. We appreciate your commitment, and we will do our best to put ourselves in the best shape to help us,” President Buhari said.
Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, who was also at the event, disclosed that those indicted in the audit of the donor funds in the past, which was done between 2010 and 2015, had already been questioned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and would be arraigned in court soon.
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