About Soroti, I said different things

Jun 12, 2002

SIR— I wish to correct the impression created by your correspondent in Soroti Kenneth Otim, who reported in The New Vision of June 3 that the African Development Bank donated sh86b

SIR— I wish to correct the impression created by your correspondent in Soroti Kenneth Otim, who reported in The New Vision of June 3 that the African Development Bank donated sh86b (US$48m) to expand Soroti referral hospital and that the grant would enable the hospital to expand the wards and buy equipment.That is not correct.What I stated and is the correct position is that the Government of Uganda had obtained a loan of $48m from the ADB for “mental health care expansion” which was approved by the Sixth Parliament and is being implemented now. The bulk of that money will go to Butabika Hospital. The loan will be used to expand the national mental health care system countrywide, which will cover six referral hospitals among other areas like Gulu, Arua, Hoima and Soroti. Forty-eight million dollars (sh86bn) cannot be given to Soroti Hospital. In any case, ADB’s does not give grants as its operations are commercial.Capt. Mike Mukula, MPMinister of State for Health

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});