Worse still, the officials were said to have ignored four separate invitations from the Committee on Public Accounts, leading to threats of an order for their arrest.
The Nigerian Senate has lamented the mismanagement of over N5.7 billion from donor agencies by some officials of the Ministry of Health.
The upper legislative house disclosed that the action of the ministry’s officials was responsible for some of the donors to suspend their assistance to Nigeria due to unsatisfactory reports that came up from the agencies about the Ministry of Health, Ireporteronline reports.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, uncovered the mismanagement in the 2016 Auditor General’s report currently under the consideration of the Senate.
Meanwhile, Senator Urhogbide was reported to have expressed dissatisfaction over the failure of the Permanent Secretary of the health ministry and officials to account for the fund.
Worse still, the officials were said to have ignored four separate invitations from the Committee on Public Accounts, leading to threats of an order for their arrest.
The first letter, dated February 1, stated that the meeting was scheduled for February 8 and another meeting was scheduled for March 16, and this month, July.
One of the donor agencies is Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI, an international NGO that is specialised in bringing together public and private sectors with the objective of creating equal access to new and under-used vaccines for children living in the world's poorest countries.
While reacting to the failure of the Ministry to account for the money spent, Urhoghide warned that the Committee was left with no other option but to issue a warrant of arrest for the officials of the Ministry to appear before the committee and give explanations.
He said: “The Ministry of Health has consistently refused to come and give an account before this committee. We have sent invitations to them to appear with no response from the Ministry, this is very unfortunate.”
The query read: “First in 2015, by a donor named Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI, an international NGO specialising in bringing together public and private sectors with the objective of creating equal access to new and under-used vaccines for children living in the world's poorest countries.
“The NGO, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, accused NPHCDA of mismanagement of funds released by the organisation and invited my Office to observe the appointment of an audit firm to carry out an extended cash programme audit of GAVI funds released to NPHCDA from 2010 to 2015.
“Non-adherence to laid down procedures stipulated in Public Procurement Act, 2007 in the procurement of Goods, Services and Works valued at N4,987,958,621.00.
"Expenditures made by the NPHCDA between 1st January 2010 and 31st March 2015 amounted to N8,599,291,949.00 out of which N187,725,160.00 was not supported with relevant statutory and third party documents, such as payment vouchers, receipts, invoices, delivery notes, store receipt vouchers, contract completion certificates, etc.
“The sum of N18,804,865.00 was also reported to be ineligible expenditures as it comprised payments to suppliers who did not deliver the procured goods or services as per contract.
“Inadequately supported expenditure amounted to N619,999,383.00. This was mostly attributed to photocopied documents, inconsistencies in supporting documents, lack of contracts with suppliers and lack of evidence of delivery for procured goods.”