By John Ikani
The Ministry of Budget and National Planning is angry with the management of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) for what it described as a misuse of N950 million Covid-19 intervention fund given to the hospital.
It has also threatened to order a thorough investigation into the use of the Covid-19 response fund by authorities of the hospital.
Background
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning of Nigeria, Clem Agba was recently in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Capital to interact with beneficiaries of the Federal Government Economic Sustainability Plan.
Part of his activities was a visit to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) that has so far received #950 million from the Federal govt to build and equip a coronavirus testing and treatment centre.
On his tour of the facility, Agba was disappointed with what he saw. He was captured in a video stressing that the facility was ill-equipped and had no visible signs of renovations as claimed by officials who took him on the tour.
When taken to what appeared to be a newly constructed facility the minister expressed displeasure over the presence of old equipment inside as well as dismissed claims made by the officials about scattered allocation of new pieces of equipment in various sections of the hospital.
“How do you erect a new building and put old things inside when you have money to buy new pieces of equipment?
“Then you claim equipment were scattered into different places, N950 million?” he quizzed.
While lamenting that the N950 million had not been judiciously used compared to 52 other Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centers that have received the same amount as Covid-19 intervention funds, the minister threatened to invite relevant govt agencies to investigate the matter.
“From what I see, first I will send the Auditor General. We need to see a detailed bill of engineering measurement. We need to look at the list provided about the things to be bought. We will review them. If it amounts to inviting ICPC and EFCC we will do so,” he said.
UPTH well equipped to respond to Covid-19 incident – CMD
Reacting to threats made by the minister, authorities of the UPTH said at the time he visited, medical equipment had been evacuated to create space for proper fumigation of the facility after cases of Omicron variant were reported in the country.
Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UPTH professor Henry Ugboma who took journalists round the facility said important medical equipment were moved into a store to give way for fumigation and have been brought back to the centre.
“When cases Omicron variant were reported in Nigeria, we took necessary prophylactic measures including moving out equipment, cleaning and fumigation to ensure that the centre was prepared for admitting patients,” he said.
“That may also be the reason why the head of the centre was not available to adequately inform the minister of what was going on when he visited.”
The CMD went on to explain that the N950 million was released for execution of four items, adding that the isolation centre got the lowest allocation out of the released funds.
While commending the Federal Govt for the release of 950 million to all health institutions, Professor Ugboma appealed to the minister to re-visit the hospital in order to see things in their proper order.
