Billions of COVID-19 cash not reached ministry – Dr. Atwine

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | While the media is covering information on billions of money that the Ministry of Health is receiving to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Dr. Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry has described these as mere rumors that should be disregarded.

She said so far, they have received Shs 119 billion from government where part is a supplementary that they recently received in addition to Shs 25 billion the initial money they received during the preparation stage.

Speaking to URN on Wednesday, Atwine said the other money coming in from donors doesn’t come in hard cash but in terms of items such as test kits and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) citing an example of the Korean International Corporation Agency that has contributed $40,000 worth of tests kits to address the current shortage.

Other partners like the World Bank she said instead of giving them money, they have asked them to re-programme and divert money already sent for other projects to tackle the public health emergency.

The World Bank diverted $15million from the Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health Services Improvement Project and Atwine says this money is partly utilized to buy reagents, test kits and PPE.

However, while other donors have recently announced new funds to the country including USAID that announced $2.3million new support to the country last week, Atwine says they have no information about this.

When it comes to supplementary budgets, the country has so far approved 304 billion Shilling to facilitate different activities aimed at tackling the pandemic. Atwine says less than half of this has actually been received by her ministry.

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