Budgetary allocations for villa clinic
Since the inception of Buhari’s administration, a total of N13.59 billion has been budgeted for the State House Clinic, Daily Trust reports. Analysis of federal government’s budgets showed that the funds were appropriated from 2015 to 2020.
A breakdown of the total budgetary provisions within the period showed that N3.94 billion, N3.87 billion and N3.20 billion were budgeted in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively.
In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the budgetary provisions dropped to N1.03 billion, N823.44 million and N723 million, respectively.
It is not clear what percentage of the money has been released to the hospital and whether it has been fully utilised or mismanaged.
During the 2019 budget defence, Arabi told the Senate committee that the villa hospital had a total budget of N1.03 billion in the 2018 appropriation, with N698 million as capital expenditure and N331.7 million as overhead cost.
He said the total overhead expenditure released for the centre from January-December 2018 is
N331.7 million, representing 99.9 per cent while the capital releases on projects is N231.9 million, representing 33.2 per cent. Findings revealed that unavailability of medicines still persists in the hospital.
Buildings at the clinic also require facelift with sources saying the infrastructure did not have an overhaul for some time now due to budgetary constraints. “A general renovation would go a long way in supporting staff to deliver excellent medical support to patients,” one of the sources said.
The Chief Medical Director of the clinic, Dr. Hussaini Munir Yakasai did not respond to calls sent to him at press time to comment on how they were coping at the facility.
As at 2017, the clinic reportedly could not boast of basic things. The situation was such that the wife of the president, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, said the hospital could not boast of syringes during her visit to the hospital. The president’s daughter, Zahra Buhari also claimed via her social media handle that the hospital could not provide ordinary paracetamol.