PAC tasks Mulago hospital to account for UGX 245M

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Public Accounts Committee-PAC of parliament has issued a two day’s ultimatum to Mulago National Referral hospital officials to account for more than Shillings 245 million.

The committee Chaired by Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the Budadiri West MP issued the ultimatum on Monday afternoon when a team of officials from Mulago National Referral hospital led by the Executive Director, Dr. Baterana Byarugaba appeared to respond to audit queries by the Auditor General, John Muwanga for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 financial year.

The others officials included the Senior Accountant, Charles Mwasa, Head of Accounts, Ponziano Nyeko, Senior Administrator,  Keneth Wafula and Head of Administration, George Nuwagaba among others.

During the meeting, Nandala noted that a scrutiny into Mulago Hospital’s Non Tax Revenue (NTR) collections revealed that in the 2016/2017 financial year, the hospital collected Shillings 2.89 billion and remitted all the money to the Consolidated Fund.

He noted that the report also shows that in the 2017/2018 financial year, the hospital collected Shillings 2.45 billion but only Shillings 2.31 billion was remitted leaving a balance of Shillings 145 million whose whereabouts remains a mystery.

Nandala also noted another unspent Shillings 98 million in the 2017/2018 the financial year is not reflected clearly on Mulago’s bank statement.  “This shows that your accounts have huge issues. Our suspicion is that you are running two accounts and one must be back door,” he said.

Nandala told the Mulago officials. Nandala also pointed to doctored figures in the financial statements of the hospital.

Tasked to explain the inconsistencies in the figures, Dr. Byarugaba passed the ball to the Senior Accountant, Charles Mwasa who argued that the Shillings 145 million NTR that had not been sent to the Consolidated Fund in 2017/2018 was sent shortly after the start of the 2018/2019 financial year.

However, Nandala noted that the money cannot be traced on the Mulago accounts as Mwasa claimed. The Tororo South MP, Fredrick Angura tasked Mwasa to present a certificate of receipt from the Consolidated Fund in vain.

Ponziano Nyeko, the Head of Accounts Mulago Hospital pleaded for more time to put their books in order noting that they hadn’t joined the institution during the two financial years under  review.

Nandala gave Mulago hospital officials two days arguing that there is no way the Committee can proceed on probing cooked up figures.

Dr. Byarugaba promised to return before the Committee together with his team after two days with explanations concerning untraceable money.

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