Baring any last minutes change of plans, the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, may arrest a former Minister for Health, Prof. Onyebuchi
Chukwu, over the stealing of $3.8million meant for the fight against AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria in Nigeria.
Sources told Pointblanknews.com that investigators have compiled over 80
pages of documents which detailed how funds from foreign donor agencies
were stolen by officials of the Health Ministry between 2010 and 2015 when
Prof Chukwu served as Minister.
A senior operative with the EFCC told pointblanknews.com that some of the
funds have been traced to bank accounts belonging to some senior officials
of the Health Ministry in commercial banks.
“We have been doing a lot of work in the Health Ministry for sometimes now
especially with regards to funds from donor agencies stolen by officials
of the Ministry and we have traced some to some accounts in about four
commercial banks.”
According to the operative who does not want to be named because he is not
authorized to speak to the press on the on-going investigation, the former
Minister, a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and some
Directors are going to be invited by the EFCC.
“Once we tidy up some few things, we are going to invite the former
Minister, Perm Secretary and some Directors in the Ministry before
charging them to court. This case is a clear one because the documents and
information we have are too damning.”
The source disclosed that in some instances, investigators were able to
match the dates when funds arrived the Ministry’s accounts, and when they
moved from the Ministry’s accounts to several personal accounts belonging
to officials of the Ministry.
Some of the funds, according to the source, could not be traced to any
account and may either have been spent by the former Minister to fund his
Governorship campaign in 2015.
Only recently, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
suspended payments to Nigeria’s AIDS agency over evidence that $3.8
million was stolen by its workers and consultants, the Geneva-based agency
said.
Fund spokesman Seth Faison, said Nigeria’s government has promised to
repay the money and to prosecute suspects.
A report by the fund’s inspector general says seven government workers and
three information technology consultants stole the money over five years
between 2010 and 2014. It said the fraud continued because the National
Agency for the Control of AIDS did not carry out proper audits.
The missing money is 95 percent of the amount budgeted to implement,
administer and train users of a web-based reporting platform, according to
the report, but a fraction of the $1.4 billion the fund has spent fighting
AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Nigeria — its biggest recipient.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of 170 million, has the world’s
second highest number of people infected with AIDS after South Africa, it
reports one-third of all deaths from malaria in Africa and is among the
top 22 countries with the most TB patients.
Corruption is endemic in Nigeria and hundreds of people are being
prosecuted since President Muhammadu Buhari won elections a year ago
promising to halt graft.
Last year, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization accused
Ministry of Health officials of malpractice and fraud during an audit of
40 percent of the $29 million it spent in the West African nation between
2011 and 2013. Nigeria repaid GAVI $2.2 million.
Nigerian officials could not immediately be reached to comment on the
latest scandal, which involves falsified expense receipts.
“When this information was first confirmed, we immediately suspended
disbursements to the agencies involved on April 12, and sent fiscal agents
to monitor expenses,” spokesman Faison told The Associated Press. He said
the fund might cease all funding to those agencies.
The Nigerian charity ProjektHope said the suspension endangers AIDS
treatment as only 750,000 of the country’s 1.8 million with HIV are
receiving antiretroviral drugs, almost all supplied by international
charities.