The Senate has revealed how officials of the Ministry of Health mismanaged N559 million generated from sales of 681,487 units of International Certificate of Vaccination, otherwise known as Yellow Card, to the public.
The lawmakers also exposed how nine various vehicles belonging to the ministry were carted away by some ex-officials when they left the service.
The irregularities were discovered as a result of the 2015 Auditor General Report which was submitted by Senator Matthew Urhoghide-led Committee on Public Account.
The query raised against the ministry reads, “It was observed from the data gathered from the state centers of the Port Health Services Unit of the Ministry that a total sum of N559 million was generated from the sales of 681,427 units of International Certificate of Vaccination (Yellow Cards) to the public between August, 2013 and March, 2015. However, the ministry failed to remit the statutory 25% of the amount totaling N139, 768,750.00 to the Consolidated Fund
“A vehicle survey conducted by my officers revealed that 9 assorted motor vehicles belonging to the Federal Ministry of Health were taken away by some former officials of the ministry when they left the service.
“Two vehicles were taken away by two permanent secretaries who are now serving in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Ministry of Women Affairs, respectively. The other seven vehicles were taken away by some Directors of the ministry who had since retired from service.”
In a different query, a level 12 officer of the ministry was said to be paid N74 million against the laid down procedure in the civil service.
“A whopping sum of N74.6 million was paid to a Grade Level 12 officer in the ministry on 21st July 2014, as personal advance for the Public Awareness Campaign for International Travellers on diseases of International Public Health importance.
“It is worrisome that such a huge amount of public funds could be entrusted to a Grade Level 12 officer, whose entire terminal service benefits cannot even match the size of the liability.
“An attempt by the officer to retire the advance in January 2015 was queried by the Internal Auditor for lacking sufficient details of the disbursement of the money. Up to the time of writing this report in September 2016, this huge advance had not been properly retired,” the query stated.
Urhoghide said series of letters have been written to the ministry for their response to the allegations but were all ignored and this would make the Senate not to have any other option than to withhold the position of the Auditor General of the Federation.
