The Ministry of Health has been put on the spot for its continued failure to account for the Shs. 42 billion Covid -19 money.
Appearing before Parliament’s public Accounts Committee (PAC) on local governments the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Diana Atwine, could not account for Covid -19 funds allocated to regional referral hospitals during the financial years of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.
in his report the Auditor General, John Muwanga, indicated that out of the Shs 4.485 billion transferred to regional referral hospitals for management of Covid-19 related activities, Shs 614 million remained unaccounted for as of June 30, 2021.
according to the AG ‘s report regional referral hospitals were given Shs 270 million each . Mbarara hospital did not account for Shs 86.7M, Moroto Shs 112.07M, Arua Shs 1.79M, Mbale Shs 87.29M, Fort Portal Shs 108.4M and Mubende Shs 217.98M.
Dr. Atwine conceded that obtaining accountability returns from referral hospitals and local governments remains a big challenge .
