By Barbara Among

THE Inspector General of Government (IGG) has cleared the health ministry permanent secretary of defying the President’s orders and called for the immediate lifting of her suspension. The IGG said in a report that the accusations against Mary Lubowa Nanono were false.

In the report handed to President Yoweri Museveni three weeks ago, the IGG said Nanono followed the instructions and acted in good faith.

“It is, therefore, our conclusion that the allegations against Mary Lubowa Nanono are false,” the IGG said.

The head of public service, John Mitala, on the orders of the President, suspended Nanono last October, citing nine reasons, which, he said, had led to procurement delays.

Museveni later explained that Nanono had defied his directive to label and emboss medical supplies.

He also accused her of advising Mulago Hospital to transfer sh500m to the National Medical Stores (NMS) out of the sh10.9b meant for medicines. NMS is charged with the distribution of medical supplies to health units.

“The allegations are false because she was not the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health when the President issued the directive in 2006,” the IGG explained.

He also noted that the President’s order was not included in her predecessor’s hand-over report.

“She got knowledge of the issue in April 2008. Subsequently in June 2008, the Ministry of Health resolved that all drugs be labelled and embossed as directed,” the report said.

The IGG, however, noted that Nanono held a strong view that the money transfer should be done in phases to give NMS time to implement the policy.

The report also pointed out that the decision to transfer the funds to NMS should have come from the Cabinet, not the health minister.

Investigations found that the decision to transfer the funds was made by Mulago management, not Nanono.

He said the order was issued on May 12, 2009, by Mulago boss Dr. Ddumba.

Nanono did not present wrong figures for drugs to the social services committee of Parliament as it was alleged, the report added.

It also cleared Nanono of accusations that she refused to endorse a report on the implementation of a health service delivery system meant to provide free health services to all Ugandans.

It was also not true that she refused to clear an eight million euro grant from France.

Nanono had also been accused of failing to alert the Government of the expiry date of DANIDA grants for drugs.

But the IGG said the Government had sufficient information about the matter, which had been discussed and solutions proposed.