How State House Permanent Secretary Diverts Funds Meant For Aso Rock Clinic

After the shocking outburst by the  wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha, on Aso Rock Clinic, more revelations are coming out on the monumental fraud being allegedly perpetrated by the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Jalal Aribi.

In actual fact, a lot of people will be surprised to know that the character behind the disappointing state of the clinic is not the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Hospital, but State House Permanent secretary , Jalal Aribi, who must be feared by all.

Unbelievable revelations have been given to a source, who is very close to some civil servants in the state house, who are fed up with the antics of Jalal and serious charges have been levelled against him by the public servants he lords it over.

They claimed that salaries of internship doctors are collected and put In fixed deposit for his own private benefit, adding that only 4 million naira has been spent on drugs in the hospital this year.

We were reliably informed that the x-ray machine in the hospital was repaired at a cost of N4m after the CMD was queried, while it was revealed that 21m was deducted for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) so far, but that no staff has access to the scheme.

Sources revealed that travel agents are also owed large amounts of money thereby grounding their businesses, and that since Jalal was not allowed to purchase new cars, he sabotaged the cars on ground,

Damning allegations were made against the Permanent Secretary in a letter signed by the Medical Director of the Clinic, Dr. H.Y  Munir and addressed to the Chief of Staff to The President, Commander-in-Chief, State House, Abuja, dated 3rd October, 2017.

The letter, which was obtained by this magazine, was titled; “Re-State House Clinic Patients Groan Over Drug Scarcity.”

The Medical Director of the clinic was reacting to the caption, which he said was published in the Daily Trust Newspaper of 3rd  October, 2017.

Munir said in the letter that the State House Medical Centre (SHMC) has been faced with several challenges involving drugs and consumables since Year 2016, and that this has been brought to the attention of State House Administration on numerous occasions.

“In the Year 2016, the approved budget for the hospital was N3, 890, 629, 221. 00. However, the only amount expended for the purchase of drugs for the year was N25, 983, 620. 00.

“In this current Year 2017, the approved budget for drugs and consumables was N290, 455, 312. 00. and the amount expended on drugs so far is N14, 786, 736, 00  and N15, 000, 000. 00. for consumables. The SHMC also received zero (#0) capital allocation for 2017.

The Medical Director added that it should be noted that the expenditure on drugs and consumables for the Year 2017 was STOP GAP procurements.

According to him, STOP GAP procurements are done as a temporal measure pending the actual quarterly procurement as presented in the budget.

He added that the quarterly drugs and consumables presented for first and second quarters of 2017 were not supplied.

“Notwithstanding the poor allocations to the centre, we have struggled to maintain routine services. As aptly captured in the Daily Trust publication, despite these challenges, doctors and nurses are always on ground 24 hours to attend to patients.

“The paltry allocations have not helped in any way to make the task of providing quality medical care to our patients, easier” he wrote in the letter.

However, a letter, which indicated the job order for the repairs of Philips Duo X-Ray Machine to the State House Medical Centre, Abuja and signed by one Ilesanmi O.I on behalf of the Permanent Secretary of the State House was also obtained by this magazine.

The letter, which was dated 21st August, 2017 was addressed to the Managing Director of Messrs El-Hanan Ventures Ltd., 3, Malcolm Fraser Street, Plot 1753, Cedastral Zone, A04, P.O Box, 2701, Asokoro, Abuja.

The contract sum was given as N4, 028, 181. 71 (Four million, twenty eight thousand one hundred and eighth naira seventy one kobo only), VAT inclusive with one period of completion.

Our source also added that; “The President, Vice President and their wives have all had their cars breakdown embarrassingly while in convoys.

“Both the wives of the President and Vice President fuel their cars from their pockets for official assignments as Jalal has continually refused to release funds for this.”
We were reliably informed that a bus that cost N27m was purchased for N85m, and that as soon as the story leaked, the whistleblowers were transferred from the administrative department, and that they were only brought back after the intervention of Mr. President.

Still on the Aso Rock Clinic, we were able to obtain documents detailing the approved budget for provision of facilities in the hospital, but which were not provided.

Reliable sources in Aso Rock insisted that all these are the handiwork of Jalal and that the situation would continue if urgent steps were not take to bring him to book and stop his alleged dubious activities right in the seat of power.