PAC orders police to detain Mbale hospital officials

Aug 24, 2016

The committee members were irked by the two officials for persistently failing to give answers to queries shown in the report.

PIC:PAC Chairperson Angelline Asege(R) talks to PAC member Gerald Karuhanga. Photos/Eddie Ssejjoba



The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament ordered the police to detain two senior officials of Mbale Regional Referral Hospital for failure to explain and respond positively to financial queries raised by the Auditor General.

Dr. J.S.O Obbo, the hospital director and Belly Sam Okwir, the Principal Accountant  were appearing before the committee chaired by Soroti district Woman MP, Angellina Osege to respond to financial queries in the auditor general report for two financial years, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015.

After repeated apologies and promises to avail documents for the queries, members of the committee asked Okwir to take an oath.

  hairperson also oroti district oman  ngellina sege PAC Chairperson: Angellina Osege

 


They were however perturbed that Okwir and Dr. Obbo 'were not consistent to the report and continued telling lies and contradicted themselves on a number of issues'. The members complained that the officials had intentionally decided to leave behind other technical staff, which they said was intended to 'elude' serious questions and queries in the report. They asked police detectives, who were in the meeting on Thursday to detain the officials for some hours, make them write a statement and start investigations in the issues raised in the report.

Osege also said she would send two members to establish facts on the ground and later the committee visits the hospital to establish its status.  

Dr. Obbo had explained that he was in office for four months, with no prior knowledge of administration, saying his predecessor; Dr. Benon Wanume who retired, would be in a better position to answer most of the questions.   

The committee members were irked by the two officials for persistently failing to give answers to queries shown in the report.

The report indicated that over shs111.3million in form of staff advances had not been accounted for and that the accounting officer had shown laxity in enforcing accountability. It recommended that he should he be held responsible.

The officials also failed to produce documentary evidence that they had repaid to the consolidated fund shs192.4million as unexpended balance from the previous year, which had been withdrawn from the fund.  "You seem not to have an answer for anything put to you, you practically came to show face," Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo Municipality) asked.

In the 2013/2014 financial year, shs9.3m advanced to the staff had not been accounted for, breaching the Treasury Accounting Instructions (paragraph 120) Part I.

The officials were also pinned for wasteful expenditure of shs146.8m in terms of penalties when they failed to clear in time Ambitious Company, which had been contracted to build an accommodation block for staff at a sum of shs3.8billion in the financial year 2009/2010, which resulted in penalties. The hospital paid shs127.7m and there was still an outstanding balance of shs19.1m.

The hospital also accumulated outstanding commitments amounting to shs266.4m, which comprised of the balance of shs252.2m brought forward from the previous financial year and shs14.1m in form of commitments incurred during the 2013/2014 financial year.

 


It was also revealed that one of the contractors, Crown Health Care supplied medical equipment worth shs163.2m, which had defects and the internal auditors recommended that the items be returned for being of poor quality and not conforming to the specifications.

The officials still failed to produce documentary evidence that the items had been replaced.

Dr. Obbo did not convince the committee of the steps taken to respond to the audit report about the malfunctioning of the dental clinic due to lack of the necessary machinery.
There limited supplies of dental cements. The X-ray board was also nonfunctional, which makes it hard for the dentist to read the x-ray for better results.

The dental chairs were found to be nonfunctional and could not rotate and the dental trimmers in the theatre were not in use due to lack of a technical person to operate them, plus the x-ray monitor, which was not functional.

The clinic had no protective wall for the x-ray machine, making it risky for the operator.

 The report also queried the hospital for failure to recruit two other staff for the Procurement and Disposal Unit, leaving only one person who was a Diploma holder, against the recommended senior procurement officer who holds a degree. "Understaffing leads to poor service delivery," the report indicated.

Esther Anyakun (Nakapirpiti District woman) said the officials were telling lies all the time yet a lot of money had been mishandled, and said it was unacceptable even after taking oath.    

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