The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that her office is not in-charge of the finances of the Subsidy Re-investment Programme ( SURE-P).

Okonjo-Iweala made the statement in Abuja on Tuesday at an investigative hearing on the operation and management of SURE- P, organised by the House of Representatives Special Joint committee on SURE-P.
She said that all the questions on how the funds were spent
should be directed to the Chairman of the Programme, Dr
Christopher Kolade.
The minister said, the director-general, who is the accounting officer of the programme, does not report to me.
"Even the accounting officer of SURE-P ( DG Budget Office) does not report to me."
She defended the decision of the Federal Government to set up the management team for the fund rather than allowing the MDAs to manage it.
"It was the desire of Nigerians to see the funds were managed separately.
"This led to the issue of creating a committee to manage the
funds in a manner that Nigerians could see that the monies were transparently utilised," she said.
The Director- General of Budget Office, Dr Bright Okogu,
debunked the allegation that the SURE-P programme was a
duplication of the work of MDAs.
Okogu said out of the N180 billion for the programme, N1
billion was dedicated to the running of the office out of which
N536.35 million had already been spent, leaving a balance of
N463 million.
He said all the monies given to the MDAs under the SURE-P
programme should be looked at as additional budgetary
provision for them.
"It is this additional budgetary principle that we are using to drive the SURE-P Programme and it’s not duplication," Okogwu said.
According to him, claims are made through the Board of SURE-P by Programme Implementation Units (PIUs) and the board verifies before payment.
On his part, Kolade said that N 180 billion was budgeted for the programme in 2012 out of which N105 billion was paid to contractors for various jobs.
He said that one of the challenges faced by the programme was how to convince Nigerians that the programme would be
beneficial to them.
Kolade said the SURE-P committee was the result of Federal
Government policy of ensuring that savings from partial
withdrawal of subsidy results in distinct development projects.
"We are just carrying out the mandate; SURE-P does not award contracts,’’ he said. According to him, money allocated to the programme is expended on health, educational and other related projects.
"We have increased the supply of human resources for health and created jobs by recruiting 3,960 health care workers. "We have selected 625 primary and secondary health care facilities across the 36 states of the country and FCT," he said.Rep. Dakuku Peterside, the Chairman, House committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream),said that since the introduction of the programme it had been received with mixed feelings.
He said that if the amount set aside for the programme was
effectively and efficiently managed, it would make a difference in the lives of Nigeians.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the House of
Representatives on Nov. 15,2012, mandated a Joint Committee to investigate the mandate and operations of SURE-P.

http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/47573/2013/02/12/finance_ministry_not_incharge_sure_p_fund_okonjo.html

Orpelin: The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said that her office is not in-charge of the finances of the Subsidy Re-investment Programme ( SURE-P).

http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/47573/2013/02/12/finance_ministry_not_incharge_sure_p_fund_okonjo.html

Is it not madness that a committee alien to Nigerians is now carrying out recruitment for health care institutions in the country? What then is the job of the Ministry of Health scattered all over the country?

Omo_Tier1:
Is it not madness that a committee alien to Nigerians is now carrying out recruitment for health care institutions in the country? What then is the job of the Ministry of Health scattered all over the country?

Look at this CLOWN yet again. In your usual haste at attempting to discredit anything GEJ, you have forgotten to use your brain even if for just a tiny tiny bit!! SURE-P does not do most its programmes alone; it is an INTERVENTION programme that augments the activities of certain MDAs- this info is right there in the OP's article.

In this instance, the MDA in question is the NPHCDA, who are the ones running the Primary Health programme:

The Federal Government has recruited 6,000 healtth workers to boost the country’s health sector, Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Ado Muhammad has said.
Muhammad disclosed this at the opening of the two-day orientation exercise for midwives under the SURE-P MCH programme for the North-West zone yesterday in Kaduna.
He said nurses and midwives have been recruited and deployed to 500 primary health care centers.
The executive director of the agency added that 2,000 basic midwives under the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS), 1,000 community health workers and 3,000 village health workers would be involved in the exercise.
According to him, 500 selected health facilities would be upgraded, staffed with skilled personnel and equipped to curb further loss of lives during pregnancy and delivery.
“Our goal in the SURE-P MCH is to make pregnancy safer and let mothers and babies live under the MDGs 4 and 5,” he said.
He said the lives of about 1.2 million expectant women or nine million people would be saved under the scheme by 2015.
He added that pregnant women would collect at least N5,000 for a minimum of four ante-natal visits to facilities plus child care services as incentives. He also urged state governments and local government councils to implement the MSS MoU for the benefit of their people.

http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/news-news/1390-fg-recruits-6000-health-workers

^^^^

It is cos of Support from Intervention programmes like this (SURE-P supporting the employment of thousands of Health workers that are trained and deployed to primary Health centres across the nation for Child and Women issues) that made Nigeria beat countries like the UK and Canada as well as others in the Commonwealth last year in this very sector:

Midwives under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Office; Midwives’ Service Scheme, have been awarded this year’s Commonwealth award.
The prize; Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) award on Innovations in Government Services and Programmes, was presented to Nigeria at CAPAM meeting in New Delhi, India.
The scheme funded by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr. Precious Gbeneol, was jointly implemented by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA).
Under the scheme, unemployed and retired midwives were recruited for deployment to primary health centres in rural communities. Nigeria beat Australia and Canada to clinch the award.
In a statement in Abuja, the Deputy Director, Information of OSSAP-MDGs, Kene Offie, said the initiative was launched in 2009 to support the country to tackle poor maternal and child healthcare.

http://thenationonlineng.net/new/news/commonwealth-award-for-midwives/

By d way, SURE-P is d main reason sm real progress hv bn made in sm key roads and bridge projects in d country in d last 6 months, sm of whom almost seemd 'miraculous' and dat wud never hv reachd d stage they are if they were relying on d unfortunately unreliable budget funds- sm of these roads includes Abuja-Lokoja, Enugu-PH, Benin-Ore, Kano-Maiduguri, etc. SURE-P is also one of d reasons d Lagos-Kano Railline is working today cos when d unplannd erosion problems that washd away sm bridges in Niger State came up mid-last yr, they wud hv had to wait until a new budget is approvd dis yr b4 hv any hope of fixing those wash-out bridges; it is also helping to fund d oda PH-Maiduguri Railline that shld be resuscitatd smtime dis yr...... If SURE-P can be ran the same way TETFUND (former ETF) is bn runned, and d programmd is transparent and remains focused, it has d ability to rely hv a noticeable impart in d development of badly needed infrastructure and such key social programmes like dis Mother-Child Primary Health care and ongoing Employment schemes. My take...