Plateau: How past govts executed multimillion naira ghost projects in health sector

…Labour room serves as bathroom –PHC workers lament

From Jude Dangwam, Jos

Public procurement is central to the development of any government around the world. It is also a breeding ground for sharp and corrupt practices leading to stagnation in development or total absence of visible projects despite budgetary allocation and awards of contracts as well as payment for jobs done without adequate supervision/ monitoring by agencies saddled with the responsibilities for efficient results.

Abandoned healthcare facility in Mafara village of Bassa

The United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) Anti-Corruption Innovation Project in Public Procurement, Implemented by Accountability Lab Nigeria in Partnership with Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) project being implemented across three states of Edo, Ekiti and Plateau has continued to unraveled sharp practices in the public procurements space running into millions of naira.

Sheryil Dayil

In Plateau State, poor public procurement has contributed to the existence of multimillion naira “ghost projects” believed to have been executed by a previous administration in the health sector across various local government areas of the state.

These projects were contained in the list of projects certified by the State Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to the Accountability Lab Nigeria for monitoring early last year under the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP) project of the UNDP project in the state.

Some of the projects monitored in the health sector had contracts awarded to various contractors in 2018 and 2019, especially in Bassa local government area, Pankshin and Jos North local government areas of the state among others, amounting to N28.5 million naira.

The state government under the Lalong led administration is said to have awarded a contract for the construction of a Primary Healthcare (PHC) facility in 2019 at the remote Mafara village of Bassa LGA to a  contractor at the sum of N8.5 million and certified for monitoring by the BPP.

The field discoveries came after months of projects monitoring by the Plateau State Community Monitors team trained by the Accountability Lab Nigeria for the implementation of the UNDP Anti-Corruption and Innovation project in Public Procurement in the state, leaving much to be desired.

The District Head of Mafara District in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, Ati Ayiko Simon Adah, expressed shock over news of an awarded PHC project in his domain. According to him, nothing of such was done in his community as the only PHC in the community started in the 1980s through community efforts.

The District Head said: “We are not aware of any hospital built in this Mafara. The only hospital we know is the one our community joined hands and built that small hospital. There was one politician Hon. Achianga who supported us to complete the other three rooms block you see by the side of the PHC. Aside from that, we are not aware of any hospital built here in 2019 by government.

“I am surprised by this information, and I’m very much interested in knowing where the money meant for my own community has gone to. Let the contractor come and execute the project. Because this is how at the end of the day if government wants to allocates a befitting PHC here in Mafara, they will say it has been constructed already. Meanwhile, there was nothing like that.”

The Ward Development Chairman of Mafara, Mr. Jonah Ayiku speaking to Daily Sun during the monitoring expressed shock and frustration upon hearing the revelations. He further gave insight to the state of the existing Primary Healthcare facilities in Mafara, which he said was purely executed by the community.

“This PHC you are seeing was built by the community. If this information is true, then the contractor should came and construct the project for us. Because a project in 2019 ordinarily the value of our currency could have not been this bad and we would have been boosting of having a befitting PHC.

“Look at the one we have, we don’t have enough space, look at the water facility too. If there was any construction of new PHC here, it could have attracted government attention to the water problem we have here. There is no any other Mafara apart from this in Plateau State.

“The solar power you see on the PHC was provided by UNICEF, while one NGO painted the PHC for us. What I can say is that government only sent two personnel, but we have six volunteers working here,” he angrily explained.

The shortage of space in the PHC which government at that time lay claim to has compelled the management of the PHC to be using labour room for bathing. One of the volunteering staff, Madam Martha Urere, working for the past seven years as cleaner at PHC Mafara told our Correspondent that the healthcare centre is critical to the healthcare needs of people of the locality as the PHC often attend to child birth as well as administration of immunization among others to locals.

Her words: “I have been working at this PHC Mafara as volunteer for the past seven years, and the problem I face is payment. It was last year that the Basic Healthcare Programme people came and started paying me. So, in three months they do pay me N21,000 and I have been managing it like that with them hoping that one day I will also be given employment,” Urere said.

The volunteer staff, who is also a native of the locality, further opened up on the challenges confronting them. She said: “In this PHC, we don’t have staff quarters, we don’t have toilets, and we don’t have bathroom. We also don’t have enough space that we can admit two to three patients if they come at the same time. We e only have one room for admission of patients.

“And because we don’t have bathroom here, the labour room is what is also been used as bathroom which is not supposed.”

Mafara village also has an abandoned healthcare facility built in 2010 by one of their sons, who became the council chairman of Bassa LGA, but it is completely in a deplorable status as community people still struggle to make use of the leaking structures to attend to their health needs.

Mr. Jonathan Michael Asubayi called on government to renovate the deplorable structure, which he noted, has bigger spaces and wards that can accommodates more patients to avoid the painful struggles of accessing healthcare outside the village considering the bad condition of the road leading to the village.

In southern part of Pankshin Local Government Area of Plateau State, the state government in 2018 was said to have awarded contract for the renovation of PHC Jibam to a contractor at the sum of N10 million but no trace of such development at the PHC.

The Long Gogot and District Head of Jibam, Nda Sheryil Dayil, was shocked to hear of a project believed to have been carried out in his domain during the monitoring and assessment visit. He furiously refuted such claims, insisting that renovation project never took place in his domain.

He said: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time I’m hearing this. It is very shocking and surprising because we have never seen anything like this.

“No body came here for renovation of our PHC. We could have been notified, because if a contractor is handling a project he must come to the palace to notify us of his presence and activities here. I came to this throne in 2014 and if a project was executed in 2018, I should have been aware.

“This is the only PHC we have in Jibam District and the community has been the one sustaining this PHC. We have things like microscope, telescope, tables and the main door was done by the community years back. Even drugs the community bought them.

“Now that I know that we were entitled to a contract to the tune of N10 million. All we want is that the contractor should come back to site, simple. If the contractor comes to site, we can do things like the provision of stones, sands and water. We shall do that on our own so that the project can move fast because we have to put our communal efforts too.”

Daily Sun discovered that the said renovation project at Jibam PHC was carried out by the Australian Government through its high commission in Abuja about 12 years ago and nothing was done again.

A resident of Jibam village, Mr Kyenin Kumyang, who was at the PHC Jibam, could not hold his anger upon receiving visitors in his community to monitored a renovation work said to have been done on the PHC in 2018.

With anger in his voice, Kumyang explained thus: “In fact, I’m very surprised to hear this, because as you can see behind me here is a signpost of an Australian Government embassy in conjunction with the Jibam Community Development. They’re the one that did the roofing and renovation of this PHC long before 2018, there is nothing again like renovation here.

“I am really surprised to see you here that you came to monitor a renovation project on our PHC. Actually, this is one of the oldest PHC in Chip land, it is a referral centre where many villages do come here, but I want to tell you that there is nothing like government efforts in attending to the challenges of this PHC.

“With the monitoring efforts you are doing, I feel government has remembered us. So, the N10 million should be traced and refunded to us so that we can deploy it for the renovation work as well as equip the place to serve our people. We don’t have proper laboratory here, no water, no staff quarters and other equipments.”

In Jos North local government area of the state, the story is not different as a contract awarded for the construction of a Clinic at NEPA Zaria Road, to a contractor at the sum of N10 million in 2019 was not in anyway traced or seen during the monitoring exercise.