The House of Representatives has questioned the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, over N15 billion meant for ‘venture investments’ in some tertiary institutions and tertiary health institutions.
The lawmakers raised the queries during a budget defence session on the 2017 budget performance/ 2018 proposed capital projects/programmes of the Federal Ministry of Health (Headquarters).
The first query was on a N9 billion provision made for the ministry in the 2017 budget for strategic joint venture with the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Investment.
Chairperson, House Committee on Health Institutions, and the lead chairperson of the Joint Committee which include Healthcare Services, AIDS, Tuberculousis and Malaria (ATM), Hon. Betty Apiafi, said the fund, which is meant for investment in eight tertiary institutions, had been almost completely released.
She said in spite of the fact that budget releases from the Budget Office showed 98.93 per cent release for this project, the committees were not availed of documents, agreements and contract awards to intimate lawmakers with what exactly the N9 billion was spent on.
She said there was N6 billion projected in the 2018 budget for strategic joint venture investments in selected tertiary health institutions with Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).
The lawmaker said the previous and proposed investment sums were presented as lump sums with no clear- cut itemisation/analysis of what they were and would be used for .
She said it would be difficult to consider the new request. “The issues and questions are quite many and justifiably require answers before we can consider your request for 2018,” Apiafi said.
The joint committee thereafter asked Prof Adewole to furnish it with necessary documents especially on the 2017 N9 billion investment venture expenditure.
“We will appreciate if documents, agreements, contract awards are forwarded to our committee to assist our oversight of the projects,” she said.
The lawmakers also expressed dissatisfaction that payment for outsourced services in all the tertiary institutions was not included in 2016, 2017 budgets and was also missing in the 2018 estimates of the Ministry.
In his response, Prof Adewole said the funds for the partnership with Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Investment encompasses University Teaching Hospitals in Enugu, Benin, Ibadan, Ilorin, Lagos, Maiduguri and the National Hospital, Abuja, saying the requested documents, agreements and contract awards will be provided.
He said outsourced services were appropriated for in 2016 in line with the contractual agreements signed in 2009. “As at date, the outsource services