Africa-Press – Uganda. The Health ministry Permanent Secretary (PS), Dr Diana Atwine, in a 16 December letter to the Finance Permanent Secretary Keith Muhakanizi, a copy of which Daily Monitor, has seen noted that the budget accountability and monitoring report “is laced with inaccuracies” which are being propagated near and far
The Ministry of Health yesterday tasked the Ministry of Finance to clarify or withdraw its budget accountability and monitoring report detailing the government’s Covid-19 multi-sectoral response expenditures issued last month.
The Health ministry Permanent Secretary (PS), Dr Diana Atwine, in a 16 December letter to the Finance Permanent Secretary Keith Muhakanizi, a copy of which Daily Monitor, has seen noted that the budget accountability and monitoring report “is laced with inaccuracies” which are being propagated near and far.
“You may wish to note that the contents of the same report are being used to tarnish the name and image of government and to create the impression that government has failed in its efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and misused the resources allocated for this purpose,” Dr Atwine’s letter, also copied to the Office of the President, reads in part.
Dr Atwine said while the Ministry of Finance’s team that compiled the report claimed to have conducted physical monitoring of the various interventions, most of their work was done over the phone and also promised to come at a later time to make a follow up. “Even in areas where they did physical verification, information was obtained from junior officers who had little information to provide. The documentary review of the procurement files that was done lacked clarity from contract managers hence the distortions in the report,” the PS added.
The Finance ministry report was first released in October but went unnoticed. The Daily Monitor and NTV, its sister Tv station, on Sunday and Monday, published details of the updated version issued late last month which paints government’s Covid-19 multi-sectoral team as incompetent and wasted billions of shillings in suspicious or unexecuted contracts.
“The monitoring team raised a number of issues which have since become a subject of seemingly planned and malicious attacks against the Ministry of Health in mainstream and social media. While we acknowledge that this is a government report, it is important that the distortions are clarified…,” Dr Atwine wrote.
She, however, defended that her ministry had received only Shs174b of which Shs119b was from government and Shs55b was from the World Bank “while the rest of the funding stated in the report did not come to the ministry.
Mr Muhakanizi was yesterday evening reported to be out of office while other officials said he had not seen Dr Atwine’s letter hence they could not comment authoritatively.
Covid-19 funds
The Finance ministry report detailed that of the Shs2.2 trillion budget for the Covid-19 multi-sectoral response, Shs766b had been committed to the Covid-19 prevention and response interventions out of which the Ministry of Health had received and spent Shs264b from both government and donors.
