Africa-Press – Uganda. Legislators on the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Central have cautioned hospital directors and other leaders to desist from collaborating with some financial institutions that allegedly compel their staff into fetching loans so that directors get commission off such deals.
In the warning issued against hospital staff of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, lawmakers on the committee indicated that the move could demoralise staff and therefore, negatively impact service delivery.
The hospital administrators are according to the Auditor General’s Report for Financial Year 2021/2022 accused of having worked with the Ministry of Public Service and deducted Shs117, 047,028 from 46 staff on behalf of financial institutions without consent letters of the targeted persons.
The committee session that was steered by Vice Chairperson Mr Asuman Basalirwa who also doubles as the Bugiri Municipality MP was looking into the queries raised in the Auditor General Report for Financial Year 2021/2022 against the hospital.
“And the information we had at that time was that some of you were forcefully compelling staff to take loans from banks and financial institutions, where you would get kickbacks. So you have about 20-30 staff you ask them to go and pick loans from financial institutions then you go and say I have brought this number, give me kitu kidogo and yet the employees have no idea whatsoever. It was on the floor of Parliament and we discussed it, I am surprised the matter is back,” Mr Basalirwa said.
The Auditor General, Mr John Muwanga in his report noted that the Ministry of Public Service made an agreement with the leadership of the Uganda Consumer Lenders Association (UCLA) together with the Uganda Bankers Association (UBA). These consequently are said to have out-sourced Payroll Consults Africa to purposely oversee the workers’ deductions and this was done by use of the Payroll Deduction Management System.
In response to the matters, the Director of the Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Mr Alfred Yayi stated that his administration has since undertaken to ensure that there are no re-occurrences of such instances.
“It was an omission. Initially, the hospital was preparing one copy. So going forward, we are now preparing two copies, one goes to the financial institution, the other remains in our files. We have also set up measures to ensure that all the new loans are approved on the basis of dully signed letters of undertakings. All staff with existing loans are submitting letters of consents that are included on their files. However, some files still lack letters of undertakings,” Mr Yayi said.
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