President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to investigate how billions of Naira in grants donated by Global Fund to Nigeria disappeared and bring the culprits to book with immediate effect.
The probe covers spending between 2010 and 2014.
Global Fund, which gives funds for health and medical interventions in Nigeria, has reported a huge discrepancy between the funds it donated to the health sector and the amount actually spent on drugs and has expressed worry over the trend.
“The auditors found discrepancies of over US$4 million between drugs ordered and delivered; US$20 million paid to suppliers without confirmation of delivery; stock-outs of eight months for critical medicines; and a total of US$7.65 million in unsupported expenditures,” the funds auditors reported.
Confirming the probe, Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, said: “President Muhammadu Buhari gave the directive as part of government’s effort to fight corruption in the country.
The President has also directed the Secretary to the Government of Federation to review earlier audit reports from the Office of Inspector General.”
Acting on the presidential directive, the Secretary to the Federal Government has set-up two investigative panels to look into the affected programmes and the financial transactions.
The first panel, which is headed by Mr. Adewole, will conduct in-depth review of all programmes carried out with the funds, while the second panel to be chaired by the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Samuel Ukura, will review all financial transactions during the period.
The minister said the two committees were expected to submit their reports within four weeks, adding that all those indicted would be severely dealt with to serve as a deterrent to others. It will be recalled that Global Fund announced last week that that its Inspector General audit of grants in Nigeria discovered significant problems in procurement, supply chain, financial and programme management.
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