Yasiin Mugerwa
12 November 2009
The purchase of faulty ambulances for Chogm has put Ministry of Health officials in spotlight after they admitted that they could not tell whether the vehicles were new or used.
Led by Permanent Secretary Sam Zaramba, the officials endured hours of grilling over spending Shs2.8 billion on purchase of 23 ambulances said to be faulty.
"We have found out that all the 23 ambulances used during Chogm were defective and couldn't be used for the intended purpose," the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairperson, Mr Nandala Mafabi, said. "We spent billions to acquire fake ambulances and these officials in the Ministry of Health were part of this mess because they accepted the vehicles with defects."
For instance, the committee heard that some ambulances lacked refillable oxygen cylinders, hooks, tongue puller and mouth opener yet the supplier (Toyota) offered air conditioned for the front instead of the back.
According to the Auditor General's findings, the cars had defective lights, resuscitators and cabinets.
However, Dr Zaramba said: "Mr Chairman, we were not the ones to blame. We received these ambulances [already in bad shape] and we couldn't tell whether they were new or not. The people to answer should be people in the Ministry of Works."
Dr Zaramba told MPs that after rectifying the faults, the 23 ambulances were distributed among referral hospitals including State House. However, NRM MPs led by Tom Kazibwe (Ntenjeru South) Frank Tumwebaze (Kibaale) and Alex Byarugaba (Isingiro South) criticised the decision to give State House an ambulance when other facilities are wanting.
But Dr Zaramba defended the decision, saying State House's ambulance was old.
The committee yesterday directed the Criminal Investigations Department to investigate whether the faults on the ambulances offered to referral hospitals were rectified after Dr Zaramba said they had been rectified by the supplier.
Mulago boss quizzed
Meanwhile, the committee yesterday ruled to hold Mulago Hospital's Executive Director, Dr Edward Ddumba, personally liable for illegally spending Shs1.7 billion meant for Chogm activities.
"Dr Ddumba was excited and went on spending spree without authority and he is going to pay back this money to the Consolidated Fund," Mr Theodore Ssekikubo (Lwemiyaga) said.
The resolution came after Dr Zaramba denied giving Dr Ddumba authority to overspend by Shs1.7 billion, an expenditure which was over and above the Shs3.3 billion Chogm budget for Mulago.
The committee has also questioned deals worth Shs5.7 billion which were awarded to Spencon (U) Ltd to construct a modern causality wing at Entebbe Hospital and Rhino Investments to give a face lift to Mulago Hospital. Dr Zaramba failed to explain why there are two different figures of Mulago's Chogm budget: Shs3.3billion and Shs5.7billion.
Dr Ddumba will today explain the spending around the Mulago face lift.
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