Joyce Namutebi
30 July 2008
Kampala — LEGISLATORS have demanded the list of people who are yet to refund the money from the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which they allegedly misused.
Health state minister Dr. Richard Nduhuura yesterday told the social services committee that sh699m had been recovered from 16 institutions and individuals from April 2006 to January 30, 2008.
He, however, did not produce the list of defaulters as the committee had earlier asked him to do. The Justice Ogoola investigation report into the abuse of the fund said sh1.6b was misused.
It implicated the then health minister Jim Muhwezi, his deputies Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha and Alice Kaboyo, a State House aide. The four have been charged with embezzlement.
According to a letter from Chris Kassami, the finance ministry Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, which Nduhuura gave the MPs, DFCU Bank had refunded the biggest amount of sh455m.
Others are the ministries of finance, education, foreign affairs and health.
City Lads FC, Ma Play, Multipurpose Art Studio and Sports for Support also refunded.
James Batuuka and Mary Musoke, both former staff of the fund's coordinating agency, the Project Management Unit, have also paid back.
But the MPs told the minister to bring the full list and the amounts involved.
Nduhuura said Finance had opened a suspense account on which the recovered money was being deposited.
He was part of the team of senior ministry officials who appeared before the committee to answer questions on policy and budget.
On how the recovered money was being spent, the minister said the Global Fund secretariat had accepted that the money be used to implement approved programmes.
The secretariat would offset the recovered amount from its future disbursements, Nduhuura added.
The MPs insisted he returns with the list.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
