Kamuli medics stealing and selling hospital equipment

Oct 29, 2018

The irked Speaker said it is uncouth and unprofessional of the medics to steal and sell off equipment at the cost of the lives of the patients they are supposed to be protecting.

CRIME
 
Kamuli-The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga has lashed out at medics in Kamuli General Hospital, who have resorted to stealing mattresses and beds from the hospital wards belonging to patients and selling them at giveaway prices around Kamuli town.
 
Apart from beds and mattresses, it is alleged that the medics are also selling scanners and other medical equipment she lobbied from the US, rendering the referral hospital devoid of the basic appliances that serve the ailing patients.
 
The irked Speaker said it is uncouth and unprofessional of the medics to steal and sell off equipment at the cost of the lives of the patients they are supposed to be protecting. 
 
"I'm perturbed by this vice. I have got reports that many mattresses have gone missing and some beds are bare, but the medics have neither complained nor arrested any thief. This implies that they (medics) the thieves," she said.
 
She added that the vice has gone extra, to the extent that the some beds were sold off and loaded onto a lorry in broad day light.
 
The speaker made the revelations at the belated independence celebrations at Bugeywa Senior Secondary School grounds on Friday, where she was the Chief Guest.
 
"I lobbied for those mattresses and beds from cooperates, and I want an explanation from the relevant office," Kadaga, also the Woman MP for Kamuli, said, tasking the District Health Officer, Dr. Agrrey Batesaki, to explain.
 
Kadaga also decried the alleged corruption in the District Service Commission, which extorts money from job seekers. 
"Money is collected from hundreds of applicants and only a handful are appointed. I told the LC5 Chairman to disband that commission but he refused," Kadaga, also the executive member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, said.
 
The District Service Commission, Fredrick Byakika and his team were not present to deny or accept the allegations, however, Moses Muwangala, the  District Councilor  for Bulopa Sub County vowed to pin the commission in the sh.4m bribery scam, if need arises or in court.
 
HEALTH OFFICE RESPONDS
The District Health officer, Dr. Aggrey Batesaki, confirmed that mattresses have gone missing from the wards and the main store.
 

 Kamuli DHO, Dr. Agrey Batesaki (right) struggles to explain to Speaker Kadaga (left) about the missing mattresses and beds in Kamuli General Hospital. 

"Madam Speaker, some beds lack mattresses and some are missing from the store. Yes, some beds were sold off but had gone of age and condemned. We sold them as scrap" he said.
 
He however didn't detail whether the beds were sold through the Public Procurement and Disposal Unit (PPDU), who received the money and where it was banked.
 
Dr. Batesaki couldn't readily establish the total number of the missing mattresses and the old beds.
 
The missing scanners are some of the 1.4bn medical equipment which the Speaker lobbied from the US, which Cocacola supported ferrying to Uganda. 
 
Kadaga tasked civil servants to abide by the professional ethics in order to have clean records at the close of their tenure/retirement.
 
Declining to comment on the service Commission, Chairman Kategere 
unveiled the education program in the district, saying that the World Bank is set to fund the construction of four secondary schools in the district.
 
These include Kadaga Memorial SS (Kagumba Sub county), Bugeywa SS (Butansi) and St. Andrews SS Naminage and Nabwigulu Seed Secondary School.

 

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