Anambra Assembly demands clarifications on N30m COVID-19 medication funds, others

The House also sought clarification on the N30m COVID-19 medication funds as well as other allocations contained in the budget of the state ministry of health.

The House Committee on Health led by its chairman, Dr. Cater Dike Nnamdi Umeh, made the call for clarifications during its oversight meeting with a delegation from the ministry of health led by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Vincent Ogochukwu Okpala.

Addressing the delegation, the chairman of the committee hailed intervention funds in the budget which were created to assist the citizenry access quality healthcare.

He however mandated the state ministry of health to furnish the committee with all relevant documents on expenditures as it relates to allocations in the ministry’s budget.

While noting that huge sums of money was allocated to education and sensitisation of the citizenry especially those in the grassroots on the existence and dire consequences of the coronavirus infections, the lawmaker frowned at the inability of the ministry of health to deploy the funds for aggressive enlightenment campaigns on the COVID-19 pandemic.

He stressed that there was little or no sensitisation on COVID-19 in the hinterlands.

Umeh further pointed out the N26m earmarked for the procurement of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) equipment but the commissioner said the release for the purchase of ICT facilities and some other releases have not been effected.

The committee’s demand for the receipts of the COVID-19 medications bought for the treatment and management of COVID-19 patients however met a brick wall as the delegation said they didn’t come with the 2020 documents, saying that they only came with 2019 documents to the meeting.

The committee chairman further said that the committee will pay an oversight visit to Enugwu-Ukwu General Hospital and some other hospitals where the ministry of health is laying claim to having ongoing capital projects.

Responding to the committee’s observations, the state health commissioner, Dr. Okpala, said drugs have been procured for the management of COVID-19 cases.

According to him, more medications will be purchased to meet the demands as more cases of Coronavirus as being recorded in the state.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting with the health committee, Okpala said that the interaction with the committee was a step in the right direction adding that it was a constitutional mandate for the lawmakers to carry out their oversight duties.