NAN-H-8
Commendation
By Ali Inuwa
Maiduguri, Nov. 20, 2016(NAN) The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) on Sunday commended the management of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) for its patriotism in ensuring timely completion of projects.
The leader of the North-East assessment team of the commission, Mr Ibrahim Dauda, made the commendation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.
Dauda said the team was impressed by the dedication of the management in its prudent management of scarce resources.
“We were at the UMTH to inspect projects as part of our mandate to ensure prudent management of national resources, we want government to have value for money in all appropriation for capital projects.
” We inspected the 10KVA power supply generators and the step-up transformers bought and they were all functioning well, ” he said.
“We also saw the amenity ward constructed which has 22 suits to cater for patients and their relations.
” We want to commend the management for ensuring the procurement of the generators and completion of the project,” Dauda said.
He said unlike other institutions, the UMTH management had abided by the Federal Government’s regulations by making sure that all projects budgeted for were properly executed.
“I think that the management has shown an exemplary character by making sure that there are no single abandoned projects in the hospital.
” We want to urge government to fund other ongoing projects in the hospital, especially with the dedication shown by the management in prudent management of resources, ” Dauda said.
He, however, expressed sadness over the inability of the management to complete the radiotherapy center which was initiated in 2012 due to lack of funds.
“We saw that work on the radiotherapy center was just at 22 percent completion due to lack of funds.
” We want to go back to write our report highlighting the importance of the project which is very important to the entire North-East,” he said.
Dauda added: “We feel that it is an important project which should be counted as priority project having started in 2012”.
He said that the commission would also try to lobby members of the National Assembly representing the North-East toward mobilising funds for the completion of the center.
“We want to highlight the importance of this project and to also urge members of the National Assembly representing the zone toward appropriating funds for the project because the project will serve the entire zone,” Dauda said.
He lamented that the North-East had suffered enough due to the Boko Haram insurgency.
“The zone has suffered a lot due to Boko Haram terrorism, so, we need to provide succour to the people by making sure that cancer patients do not have to travel thousands of kilometers for treatment.
“We learned that the patients now have to travel to Sokoto or Ibadan for treatment, which is worrisome,” Dauda said.(NAN)
ABI/AMY/AMY
Edited by Abdullahi Yusuf