Gombe teaching hospital paid N139.83m for Dukku/Nafada outreaches with no patient records, audit says; the 2026 Act gives the same line N133,798,760

Between December 2022 and December 2023, the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, paid N139,830,000 to two companies to run medical outreaches in the Dukku/Nafada Federal Constituency. When the Auditor-General's office examined the payments, it found no list or photograph of any patient treated, no names of the doctors, nurses or pharmacists who were to run the outreaches, and bills of service for 2022 and 2023 that were identical. The hospital did not answer the query. The 2026 Appropriation Act gives the same hospital N133,798,760 for "free medical outreach and dispensation of drugs" in the same constituency.

The query is the only issue recorded for the hospital in the Auditor-General for the Federation's 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance, Volume II, on pages 462 to 464. It covers 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2023 and is headed "Circumvention of procurement due process and contract execution (=N139,830,000.00)". A table lists five payment vouchers, each described as "Provision of medical outreach at Nafada/Dukku Fed. Constituency of Gombe State". The report does not name the contractors; it calls them "1st Company" and "2nd Company".

The first company was paid N32,000,000 on voucher FTHG/5571 of 21 December 2022 and N7,990,000 on FTHG/0776 of 24 February 2023. The second was paid N29,952,000 on 1 November 2023, N23,500,000 on 10 November 2023 and N46,388,000 on 12 December 2023. According to the report, the contracts were awarded by letters dated 5 December 2022 and 30 October 2023, at N39,990,000 and N99,840,000, with completion periods of seven days and four weeks. Vero Record re-added the table: the first company's two payments equal its contract sum, the second company's three payments equal its own, and the two sums together make the report's total of N139,830,000.

The dates can be counted from the same page. The 2022 contract, awarded on 5 December with seven days to complete, was paid in part 16 days after the award and in full 81 days after it, on 24 February 2023. The 2023 contract, awarded on 30 October with four weeks to run to 27 November, received its first payment of N29,952,000 two days after the award, and its last 43 days after it. The report does not say whether any of these were advances or payments against certified work.

What the auditors say was missing is set out in numbered points. There was no evidence "such as lists or pictorial records of beneficiaries/patients treated, or details of medical personnel (doctors, nurses, pharmacists) who conducted the outreaches". There was no evidence of radio or television announcements, "medical services rendered, or feeding of patients as required under the contracts". The 2023 contract provided for 100 deliveries a month, "amounting to N10,200,000.00", but the auditors found no evidence that baby delivery items reached anyone. And "the bills of service presented for 2022 and 2023 were identical".

The report also questions who was hired. It says no due diligence reports were produced, although the Bureau of Public Procurement's No Objection of 15 November 2022 (reference BPP/S.I/22/Vol.VII/743) required the hospital to carry out a due diligence search. It says "the contractors were related, having common Directors", which the auditors write breached the conditions of restricted procurement and indicated "possible contract rigging". It says one firm is a general contractor and the other an engineering firm, neither with medical expertise, and that neither, registered in 2018 and 2021, produced records of three similar jobs in five years. These are the auditors' observations; the report does not say any of them has been tested by an investigating body or a court.

Under "Management's Response" the report prints two words: "No response." The auditors therefore treat the findings as valid until the recommendations are carried out. They ask the hospital's Chief Medical Director to account for N139,830,000 to the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly, to recover and remit the same sum to the Treasury, and, failing that, for sanctions under paragraphs 3106 and 3129 of the Financial Regulations to apply. The "Risks" the report lists, diversion and loss of public funds, are risks, not findings. The report does not say the outreaches did not take place; it says the hospital did not show that they did.

The second document is the 2026 Appropriation Act, which President Bola Tinubu signed in April, according to a State House statement of 17 April 2026. The hospital appears on page 2337 under code 0521026018, within the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, with a total allocation of N29,642,123,271. Its project list runs to 65 lines over pages 2337 to 2339 and adds to N13,384,485,251, exactly its capital total. The 63rd line, code ERGP20277855, reads "Provision of free medical outreach and dispensation of drugs in Dukku/Nafada Federal Constituency Gombe State", type "Ongoing", N133,798,760. That is about 1.0 per cent of the hospital's capital budget and N6,031,240 less than the two audited contracts combined.

The line was not in the hospital's list a year earlier. The 2025 Appropriation Act's pages for the hospital (pages 1935 to 1937) carry medical outreach lines for Fika/Fune in Yobe State (N50,000,000), Balanga/Billiri and Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye in Gombe State, and Aliero/Gwandu/Jega in Kebbi State (N21,825,000), but none for Dukku/Nafada. The 2026 Act calls the Dukku/Nafada line "ongoing" without saying what it continues. The documents do not show whether it is meant to carry on from the contracts the Auditor-General queried, or is a new programme with the same purpose.

Outreach is not the only constituency spending placed in the hospital's vote. The 2026 list has five medical outreach lines, in Dukku/Nafada, Balanga/Billiri, Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye, Fika/Fune and Aliero/Gwandu/Jega, adding to N429,076,260. It also includes "distribution of food items in Yamaltu-Deba Federal Constituency" (N140,000,000), fertiliser for farmers in Bade/Jakusko, Yobe State (N70,000,000), sewing machines for women in the same constituency (N70,000,000), and solar street lights at Mbiabong Ikot Udo/Mbat in Akwa Ibom State (N63,000,000) and in Unubi, Anambra State (N58,170,000). The Act does not say who proposed these lines. Most of the hospital's capital money is for its own services, among them N2,040,568,444 for a cancer centre and N1,020,284,222 for a radio-diagnostics centre.

The hospital is a federal institution whose budget sits under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, led by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate. The audit addresses its recommendations to the hospital's Chief Medical Director and does not name the person who held the post in 2022 and 2023; it makes no finding about the ministry or the minister. The query now sits with the Public Accounts Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. Vero Record relied on the documents alone and did not put questions to the hospital before publication.

Set side by side, the record supports the hospital on one point: the payments match the contract sums exactly, and the audit does not allege an overpayment. Everything else in the query rests on what the hospital did not produce: no patient lists, no staff names, no due diligence reports and no reply. With that query unanswered in the Auditor-General's report, the 2026 Act provides N133,798,760 for the same service in the same constituency, through the same hospital.

What this rests on

Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation, 2024 Annual Report on Non-compliance (Vol. II), Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, Issue 1, report pp.462 to 464 (PDF pp.27 to 29), period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2023. 2026 Appropriation Act, Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe (code 0521026018), pp.2336 to 2339. 2025 Appropriation Act as passed, Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, pp.1935 to 1937. State House statement of 17 April 2026 on assent to the 2026 Appropriation Bill. All read for this report. Arithmetic re-done: first company N32,000,000 + N7,990,000 = N39,990,000 (its contract sum); second company N29,952,000 + N23,500,000 + N46,388,000 = N99,840,000 (its contract sum); N39,990,000 + N99,840,000 = N139,830,000 (the report's total). Days: 5 Dec 2022 to 21 Dec 2022 = 16; 5 Dec 2022 to 24 Feb 2023 = 26 + 31 + 24 = 81; 30 Oct 2023 to 1 Nov 2023 = 2; 30 Oct 2023 + 28 days = 27 Nov 2023; 30 Oct 2023 to 12 Dec 2023 = 1 + 30 + 12 = 43. 2026 Act: personnel N15,787,431,619 + overhead N470,206,401 = recurrent N16,257,638,020; + capital N13,384,485,251 = total N29,642,123,271; the 65 project lines on pp.2337 to 2339 add to N13,384,485,251. Dukku/Nafada line N133,798,760 / N13,384,485,251 = 1.0%; N139,830,000 - N133,798,760 = N6,031,240. Five 2026 outreach lines: N133,798,760 (Dukku/Nafada) + N175,000,000 (Balanga/Billiri) + N70,000,000 (Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye) + N35,000,000 (Fika/Fune) + N15,277,500 (Aliero/Gwandu/Jega) = N429,076,260.

What this does not establish

Whether the outreaches took place; the audit says only that no evidence was produced, and the hospital did not respond. The names of the two companies and their directors, which the report withholds. Whether the payments were advances or payments for completed work. Who proposed the Dukku/Nafada line in the 2022, 2023 or 2026 budgets, and whether the 2026 line, marked "ongoing", continues the audited contracts. Whether any of the N133,798,760 has been released, contracted or spent in 2026. Whether the Public Accounts Committees have heard the query, and whether the hospital has since answered it. Who was Chief Medical Director in 2022 and 2023. The 2022 and 2023 Appropriation Acts were not examined for this report. An audit query is a query: nothing in this report states or implies that any person committed an offence.