The Senate on Monday vowed to launch full scale investigation into the alleged mismanagement of over $420 million global funds for polio eradication in Nigeria.
Geneva-based Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation had indicted Nigeria for allegedly misusing $420 million meant to immunise children against polio.
However, addressing journalists to mark the World Polio Day, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Primary Health and other Communicable disease, Senator Mao Ohuabunwa, said the committee will soon begin investigation into the alleged mismanagement of over $420 million global fund donations to Nigeria for the fight of polio and related diseases.
Ohuabunwa said the Committee is already probing another $1.5 million granted to the 36 states by the Federal Government to fight fresh outbreak of polio, especially in the North East.
He said already, the committee had sent letters to all concerned government agencies to furnish it with details of the distribution of such fund.
Meanwhile the committee is set to tour all the 36 states of the federation to ascertain the utilization of the $1.5 million fund granted to states to control the said diseases.
The Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency were implicated in a fraud audit conducted by GAVI in which over $400 million disbursed for procurement of vaccines was alleged to have been grossly abused.
Ohuabunwa said: “In this wise, my Committee will ensure its statutory oversight functions of key government agencies and parastatals are conducted as and when due with a view to ensuring probity and accountability on how health-related, Primary Health Care services are funded and implemented.
“”Additionally, we want to reassure all donors and partners of our resolve to ensure donor funds are also well spent and that they reach the masses that need them.
“Key funding agencies like Global Fund, GAVI and several others will be engaged by my committee to ensure mistakes of the past are avoided and that funds from these donors are used judiciously.
“We cannot afford mistakes of the past where funds for developmental projects from donors are improperly managed, leading to sanctions on Nigeria from these donors.
“We cannot continue to be disgraced as a nation through mismanagement of donor funds and must work hard to gain or regain the trust of all donors, bilateral and multi-lateral partners.
“The committee will like to review the process of how certain decisions were made with a view to strengthening the whole grant system in a manner that makes monitoring the states more rigorous, thus making the states more accountable on how the funds are used.
“The Committee will work to ensure that only states that perform to standard get more funding.”
Ohuabunwa called on the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication, which consists of the President of Nigeria and all 36 State Governors, to convene a meeting to discuss how to get Nigeria back on track to achieving a polio-free status, pointing out that the leadership and guidance of this Task Force was critical at this juncture of Nigeria’s battle to eradicate polio.
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