President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the site for the building of the VIP State House clinic within the precinct of the Aso Rock.
The state-of-the-art clinic which will serve the populace is expected to be completed in the next two years before the end of the Buhari-led administration.
The Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs had earlier visited the site during its oversight function to know the level of utilization of budgetary allocation to State House.
Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijani Umar, said the non-release of budgetary allocation to State House in full has become a challenge as some of the facilities at the nation’s seat of power have become obsolete.
Umar noted that out of about N8,699 billion budgeted for State House in the 2018 fiscal year, only about N5,083 billion which was about 58 percent was released, leaving an outstanding balance of about N3,616 billion.
Umar told the committee that in 2019 out of about N6,955 billion budgeted, only about N2 billion which was about 38 percent of the total sum was released, leaving an outstanding balance of about N4 billion as the shortfall, while in 2020, the sum of about N4,878 billion was appropriated and fully released.
Fielding questions from journalists, the Permanent Secretary noted that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse effect on the economy.
Asked how the management of the State House was coping with the funding challenges, he said, “First and foremost, let me say that we are privileged to be in this position, to be able to discharge these huge responsibilities and I’m also happy that you raised the issue of funding challenges.
” I also want to use the opportunity to distinguish very clearly between appropriation and release. Just like you mentioned now, in 2018, about N8 billion was appropriated, out of which only about N5 billion was released. Definitely, looking at the enormity of the challenges that we are dealing with from day to day, that is affecting our performance.
“However, we are in a tradition of prudence and we also have not lost sight of the challenges that we have internationally, especially with COVID in regard to how much money in the country in its entirety makes.
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“However, I would like to say that the State House needs quite a formidable level of support and improvement in the funding. Especially because we are dealing with phasing out a lot of infrastructures that have come to the end of their lifespan.
“We have the issue of our ICT infrastructure, we have the issue of our equipment in the Conference Centre here, kitchen equipment, we have the issue of telecommunications, and operational and utility vehicles that are gradually coming to the tail end of their lives and we need to replace them.
“But majorly, I think the biggest intervention we require is in building and construction of the Presidential wing of the State House Clinic, which is of strategic national importance and it’s being done in form of a legacy project.
“And by the time this administration leaves office, we would have the Presidential wing of the State House Clinic in place so that it will be very clear that all the observations and all the hopes and aspirations that the general public has expressed of the State House Clinic and its facilities have been achieved.
“For now, we have already started in earnest with activities that are required for the construction, we have received the necessary approvals. We have received no objection from the Bureau of Public Procurement.
“We have already directed the contractor because he’s going to come in form of a turnkey project, in order to mobilize and take over the site, and to develop the necessary drawings, and the geotechnical survey reports that we have so that the two years that we have set for ourselves to deliver this project can be achieved.”
(Editor: Ena Agbanoma)
