Health Ministry Probes Use Of Donor Funds

Health Ministry Probes Use Of Donor Funds

Nigeria 's Health Minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu has directed all heads of departments and programmes in the ministry to provide details on the use of donor funds in the health sector.

The minister gave indication of the probe in Atlanta , USA , while addressing newsmen on the sidelines of the Carter Centre awards for guinea worm eradication, for which Nigeria won a prize.

“We want to know what has happened in one year. How much came in, what kind of assistance came in, what did we do with those kind of assistance; what was the outcome and what was the impact?'' Chukwu said.  

The minister said that he had written to heads of departments and programmes of the ministry, requesting information on the flow of funds from multilateral partners, bilateral institutions and from non-governmental organisations operating in Nigeria .

''Similar letters were sent to donors, requesting for information on the disbursement of funds to organisations in Nigeria '' . The minister said.

Misuse of funds

A recent report from the UN Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, had raised concerns over grave misuse of funds in four countries, out of the 145 countries that received grants from the fund to combat the three diseases.

The Global Fund, which has an annual budget of more than 20 billion dollars, suspended grants as a result of misappropriation reported by its Inspector-General in Mali, Mauritania, Zambia and Djibouti.

The report by the Fund's investigators stated that the fund was also looking into allegations of organised thefts of anti-malaria drugs in Malawi , Tanzania , Kenya , Nigeria , Uganda , Togo and Cote d'Ivoire and their sale in Nigeria , Benin , Cote d'Ivoire , Cameroon and Guinea .

Claims to be verified

Chukwu said that he was aware of the reports and would “verify the claims from the donors and the recipients''.

Nigeria and Niger have marked a full year with no cases of guinea worm disease.

Both countries joined 14 others that have halted the disease since the eradication campaign began in 1986.

Zero cases
According to the Carter Centre, in 1989, during the first survey of the global scope of the problem, Nigeria had an estimated 653,000 cases of guinea worm.
 
''For the past 12 months, however, Nigeria , once the worst-afflicted country in the world, appears to be free of the worms.'' The centre said. 

The Centre, founded by former US President Jimmy Carter, which works on the disease eradication, noted that Sudan , Mali , Ethiopia , and Ghana , are still the only countries still fighting the worms.

Campaign  
The Centre has been involved in a 24 -year international campaign to eradicate the disease.

After two decades, the Carter Centre said it hoped that Guinea worm disease would soon become the second human disease to be eradicated from the earth, and the first without the use of vaccines or medicines.

NAN /Williams/Yinka