JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja
The House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets and Special Duties has queried the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, over the Ministry’s public and private partnership programme and concession agreement aimed at improving healthcare in the country.
The House Committee probed BioVaccines Nigeria Limited a joint venture between the federal government and May and Baker in 2007 and other partnerships by the Ministry.
Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Dabo Haruna, directed that the Minister must submit relevant documents including evidence of advertisement of this PPPs/concession/lease, expression of interest on these leases as well as specific achievements recorded by the Ministry in the period under reference.
The Committee Chairman, Hon Ademorin Kuye, who later joined the hearing said the Minister should provide the documents supporting the Ministry’s N10b equity contribution.
The Minister was also directed to provide relevant documents regarding the lease of land to May and Baker in Lagos. He is also to tender a document of transfer of shares to the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI).
He said, “I also want to bring to your notice that in the document, part of the document submitted, the equity contribution of the federal government. One is 10 billion Naira.
“We take it as part of the information and documents that will be submitted alongside with the pending documents. We want to know where that money is, the utilization of the funds, when the money is being released, and where the money has been domiciled.
“Also part of the agreement, the Government gave out a landed property in Lagos. We want to have comprehensive documents of the agreement and document of the landed property, to be submitted to this Honourable Committee as well.
“Finally, we want you to clarify to us in your next appearance the share capital of the federal government and that of the partners, we want documents showing in detail how the shares have been domiciled, what is for the federal government and what is for the percentage
that belongs to the federal government and that of the partners.”
The Minister pleaded to be given till the next sitting to provide the relevant documents.
He said, “The ministry has taken due steps to try to collect the documents that are available, but there are still, I believe, important gaps.
“I would like to plead with the committee in order to be very thorough in terms of completeness of what you have requested
that we be given more time to be able to come back to the committee with a fuller response that is vetted.
“I would like to personally vet all the documents before they are submitted to you and where they are not in existence to be able to come back to you. As you can understand, many of these were entered into years before we came into office and we’re dealing with the residue of some of those agreements which I believe have been shared with you but admittedly the information is incomplete.
“So Mr Chairman, I will not want to share information with you that is incomplete. We are working very hard to ensure that we collect all the information that is required and come back to you with an indication of what we have and the gaps that exist in what we have inherited.
“I know that you’ve been patient with us but it’s quite challenging to gather all the documents that go years in the making and we were not here but we are responsible for ensuring that you get all the information that you need to conduct your due diligence.
So in the context of this process, I plead with the committee to give us a bit more time and I will personally ensure that we compile them and with a tabulation of when the agreements were made,” he said.
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