The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission inaugurated a joint task team on Aug. 17 to curb health sector corruption and protect health funds from diversion, under a two-year memorandum of understanding that can be renewed.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammad Ali Pate said the cost of diverted money is measured in missing medicines. “When those resources are diverted, the cost is not abstract. It is a medicine that never arrives,” he said. “Investment without integrity cannot deliver sustainable results.”
Pate charged the team: “Identify the vulnerabilities. Recommend practical safeguards. And make sure your work outlasts the life of this Team.”
ICPC Chairman Musa Adamu Aliyu, represented by Executive Secretary Clifford Oparaodu, said prevention is the better route to tackling health sector corruption, describing it as “a cheaper, less intrusive but more enduring or sustainable way of fighting corruption.”
Health sector corruption controls now reach all 774 councils
The ministry said 774 performance and financial management officers have been deployed, one for each local government area, and that verified National Identification Numbers are being used to reduce fraud in beneficiary and payment records.
Permanent Secretary Daju Kachollom and Director of Hospital Services Abisola Adegoke attended, alongside Shehu Gambo, assistant director of financial investigation at the ICPC. The task team is co-chaired by both institutions and will report quarterly on health sector corruption risks following disbursements from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
Why it matters: Donor confidence in Nigeria’s health financing depends on visible controls over how facility-level funds are tracked and spent.
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