FG, ICPC Move to Block Diversion of Health Funds

The Federal Government has stepped up efforts to prevent the diversion and misuse of funds in the health sector as the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) inaugurated a joint task team to strengthen accountability in healthcare spending.

The initiative is designed to identify institutional weaknesses, close loopholes and introduce preventive controls to protect public investments and ensure that funds allocated to healthcare reach the facilities, health workers and Nigerians for whom they are intended.

Inaugurating the Joint Task Team, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said every naira invested in the health system must deliver measurable value to Nigerians.

Pate warned that corruption in the sector had consequences beyond financial losses, as the diversion of resources could directly affect the availability of medicines, equipment and essential healthcare services.

“When those resources are diverted, the cost is not abstract. It is a medicine that never arrives, equipment that is unavailable when needed, or a service that falls short. In this sector, corruption can cost lives,” he said.

The minister said the Federal Government would not tolerate corruption in the health sector, stressing that effective governance must focus on preventing wrongdoing rather than merely responding after resources had been lost.

He described the joint task team as “an instrument for institutional change”, rather than another committee, with its mandate centred on prevention, institutional strengthening and improved oversight.

According to him, the initiative aligns with the government’s broader efforts under President Bola Tinubu to build a health system in which public resources are properly utilised and institutions operate with integrity.

Pate highlighted measures already being implemented to improve accountability in health financing, including the deployment of 774 Performance and Financial Management Officers under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) 2.0.

He said one officer had been deployed to each local government area to independently verify the receipt and utilisation of funds.

The ministry is also using verified National Identification Numbers to authenticate beneficiaries and reduce duplication, while strengthening fund utilisation standards, applying sanctions for violations and digitalising processes to improve transparency and traceability from allocation to utilisation.

Pate said the accountability measures must extend across all areas of the health sector, including financing, procurement, infrastructure, medicines and service delivery.

He said the ICPC’s preventive and oversight functions, including its system-study mandate, state offices and Anti-Corruption and Transparency Units across government, would complement the ministry’s efforts to identify institutional vulnerabilities before they translate into failures.

The minister said the partnership was in line with Pillar One of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, which focuses on effective governance, regulation, standards and accountability.

He stressed that the objective was not simply to increase expenditure on healthcare but to ensure that every investment produced tangible benefits for Nigerians.

“Investment without integrity cannot deliver sustainable results,” Pate said.

He called for collective responsibility among public servants, contractors, development partners and citizens in protecting public resources and promoting integrity across the health sector.

The minister also charged members of the task team to work with professionalism, independence, courage and diligence, urging them to ensure that their recommendations resulted in lasting reforms.

“Identify the vulnerabilities. Recommend practical safeguards. And make sure your work outlasts the life of this Team,” he said.

The ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, represented at the event by the commission’s Executive Secretary, Mr Clifford Oparaodu, said the establishment of the task team gave practical expression to the memorandum of understanding between the commission and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

He said the MoU provided a framework for collaboration and preventive oversight in the management of health-sector resources, particularly the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.

Aliyu stressed that funds allocated to primary healthcare must reach the facilities and people for whom they were intended and be utilised transparently, efficiently and in accordance with due process.

“Its purpose must be reflected in concrete outcomes,” he said.

The ICPC chairman said prevention remained one of the commission’s most important approaches to fighting corruption because identifying weaknesses in government processes and procedures could eliminate opportunities for corrupt practices.

“It is a cheaper, less intrusive but more enduring or sustainable way of fighting corruption,” he said.

Aliyu said the approach was particularly important in the health sector, where corruption could have life-threatening consequences.

“Corruption in the health sector is not measured only in financial losses or accounting irregularities. The losses are measured in maternal and infant mortality rates, rates of immunisation, mortality from preventable diseases, easy and affordable access to medical care at all levels,” he said.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Daju Kachollom S. mni, said effective stewardship of health resources was fundamental to improving health outcomes.

Kachollom said the ministry’s responsibility to save lives, reduce the physical and financial burden of ill-health and produce health for Nigerians made the protection of resources entrusted to the sector imperative.

“It is against this background that we consider this partnership with the ICPC both timely and important,” she said.

She disclosed that the memorandum of understanding would run for two years, subject to renewal, while the task team would be co-chaired by the Director of Hospital Services, representing the ministry, and a director of the ICPC.

The team comprises officials from relevant supervising offices and departments, including the Director of Human Resource Management and the ministry’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit.

Kachollom said the task team had been designed to be embedded in the ministry’s existing operations rather than function as a structure outside the ministry.

She added that its secretariat would be domiciled at the BHCPF secretariat and that it would report through the ministry’s established reporting and workflow structures.

The team will conduct assessments following each quarterly disbursement of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.

In their separate remarks, the co-chairmen of the task team, the Director of Hospital Services, Dr Abisola Adegoke, and Assistant Director, Financial Investigation at the ICPC, Mr Shehu Gambo, pledged to carry out the assignment diligently and transparently.

They assured that they would justify the confidence reposed in them and use the assignment to strengthen accountability in the health sector.

The inauguration marks a fresh phase in the collaboration between the health ministry and the ICPC, with the task team expected to identify vulnerabilities, recommend safeguards and help ensure that public health investments translate into improved services and better outcomes for Nigerians.