Africa-Press – Uganda. When Covid-19 hit the country in March 2020, a number of well-wishers donated a number of items including food and money worth Shs29.6b to help with the pandemic response.However, in recent months, a number of people have asked government to give an accountability for the money that was donated.
As the second wave bites, the country has been faced with a shortage of some essential items including personal protective equipment (PPEs) for health workers and ambulances, which has left many asking why government has not spent the Covid-19 donations on solving some of these issues. Dr Mukuzi Muhereza, the general secretary of Uganda Medical Association (UMA), said government should have procured ambulances and not just any cars to boost the available ambulances.
“If it were to be cars, as a medical practitioner, I would want to see more ambulances,” Dr Muhereza said yesterday.However, the Ministry of Health came up with a plan to use the money.Government planned to spend Shs2.4b on building health border posts at Cyanika and Vurra borders in Kisoro and Arua districts, respectively, Shs23.8b on purchasing 282 pick-up trucks for hospitals and local governments and Shs3.3b on building first phase of two blood banks in Arua and Soroti districts.
Dr Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, last Friday said the decision to spend the cash donation on the above items was to put up something tangible and permanent to remember the effort of the private sector towards the Covid fight. “If you spend the money on other things like test kits you will not remember the contribution of the private sector and because of that we choose those [items]” Dr Atwine said.
Regarding the blood banks, Dr Atwine said the procurement process is being finalised and site inspection and designs have been done. She added that the health border posts [which are portable] were made but the districts delayed to allocate land as had been agreed before. “We are relocating some to Entebbe isolation centres since it does not have staff houses. They are needed more here to take care of our workers who are treating patients. Some will be taken once the land is availed by the district.”
According to Ministry of Health, these border posts can still serve past this pandemic.In an interview with this newspaper last week, Dr Atwine said the “money is intact” and once the work is delivered, payment will be done. “Half of the vehicles are already in the country and we shall pay the suppliers in full when all the vehicles are delivered, registered and released to us,” Dr Atwine said. She added: “When it [money] came to the ministry, we started procurement. The pick-ups had to be shipped into the country, which took time. We [Health ministry] think in one or two weeks, all pick-ups will be delivered here.” More cashWhile reviewing the planned expenditure for the Covid-19 response early this year, Members of Parliament decided to add an additional Shs10.6 billion to Shs23.8 billion slated to be spent on cars. The MPs said instead of buying pick-up trucks, the Health ministry can procure ambulances. We were unable to reach Dr Atwine to clarify on what happened to the plan to procure ambulances as she did not respond to our calls and messages.
