State House Clinic scandal: NASS listed among beneficiaries

The Presidency has revealed that apart from over 10,000 registered patients that patronise the State House Medical Centre annually, members of the National Assembly also benefit from the facility’s free services. The Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, revealed this in a statement issued on his behalf by the Deputy Director of Information, […]

The Presidency has revealed that apart from over 10,000 registered patients that patronise the State House Medical Centre annually, members of the National Assembly also benefit from the facility’s free services.

The Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Arabi, revealed this in a statement issued on his behalf by the Deputy Director of Information, Attah Esa.

The permanent secretary also listed political appointees, military and paramilitary organisations as well as other security agencies as beneficiaries of the State House Medical Centre’s free services.

The centre, meant to serve Nigeria’s president, vice president, their families and workers of the Presidency, was recently in the news for lack of drugs, equipment and other consumables.

The House of Representatives had Thursday launched a probe the “deplorable condition" of the State House Clinic and its inability to deliver basic medical services, resolving that the investigation would cover how the facility utilised the N10.98nn budgeted for its operations since 2015.

But while giving further insight into the scope of the centre’s clientele, Arabi stressed: "Apart from the Presidency, other beneficiaries of the free services include political appointees, the military, paramilitary, other security agencies, members of the National Assembly and the general public."

Arabi also noted that “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.”

 

Faulting media reports that the centre had from 2015 to 2017 received N11.01bn as appropriation, Arabi clarified: "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."

The permanent secretary, who noted that there was zero capital allocation for the centre in 2017, said out of the N331,730,211.00 recurrent appropriation for this year, the actual amount released up to September was N91,370,053.60, representing 27.54 percent.

He said the above figures were verifiable from the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning, explaining 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.

The permanent secretary admitted that, "In addition, the centre has continued to execute ongoing projects."