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The Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Dr James Enimi Omietimi, has said the delay in the release of the centre’s 2025 capital allocation has stalled the implementation of some ongoing projects and affected its operations.
Omietimi disclosed this when he recently received a verification team from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), which visited the medical centre to inspect selected Federal Government-funded projects in the South-South region.
He said the lack of timely funding had made it difficult for the centre to maintain the pace of work on its capital projects and address some of its operational challenges.
“We should not pretend because things have not been too good lately,” Omietimi said, stressing that the realities of running a tertiary healthcare institution were often different from what was portrayed publicly.
According to him, the financial difficulties facing the centre had made it increasingly challenging to provide the expected level of healthcare services to residents of Bayelsa State and neighbouring communities.
The Medical Director also raised concern over the growing reliance by some residents on traditional medicine, saying some patients now seek orthodox medical care only after their conditions have deteriorated.
He appealed to the Federal Government to ensure the timely release of capital funds to enable the centre complete its ongoing projects and improve healthcare delivery.
The FRC team, led by the Head of its Strategic Communication Directorate, Mr Bede Ogueri Anyanwu, was at the centre as part of an exercise to physically verify selected Federal Government capital projects.
Anyanwu said the exercise was designed to determine the level of implementation of projects and establish whether appropriated and released funds were being properly utilised.
He said the exercise was part of the FRC’s statutory responsibility to promote transparency, accountability and prudent management of public funds under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.
“Our mission is to promote transparency, accountability and prudent management of public funds as contained in the mandate of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007,” Anyanwu said.
He stressed that the exercise was not intended to witch-hunt the management of FMC Yenagoa or any government institution, but to establish the actual situation on the ground.
According to him, the physical inspection would enable the Commission to compare the level of work executed with the funds appropriated and released, identify challenges affecting implementation and determine whether the projects were delivering the intended value to Nigerians.
The team inspected several projects at the medical centre, including the renovation and expansion of the Mother and Child Group Complexes; purification and renovation of pipe-borne water facilities; the continued construction of a two-storey House Officers/Interns Block comprising 36 flats; and the construction of a two-storey Resident Doctors’ Quarters.
The verification team included Mrs Anthonia Danjuma of the Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Miss Into-Sam Audu of the Investigation Unit, Mr Cyril Longpam of the Secretariat and Mr George Nwari, representing the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors.
The FRC said the exercise would help establish the physical status of the projects, identify factors responsible for delays and ensure that public investments translate into improved services for Nigerians.
