The former Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital Dr. Byarugaba Baterana, has come under fire from the Public Accounts Committee – PAC Central Government for diverting Shillings 206 million meant for the allowances of medical interns and senior health officers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2020/2021 financial year, the government disbursed Shillings 3.8 billion Shillings to cater for the allowances of the intern doctors and senior health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, lawmakers and legislators were shocked that Shillings 206 million out of the Shillings 3.8 billion was spent on contact tracing, sample collection, case management, and surveillance of the pandemic.
The Committee Chairperson, Medard Sseggona asked Dr. Byarugaba whether contact tracing or case management was part of the job description of medical interns and the health workers.
He tasked Mulago Hospital management to produce bank statements, names, and contacts of the beneficiaries of the funds, adding that previous inquiries into such financial diversions pointed to fraud.
Furthermore, Ssegona directed the hospital management to provide a letter from the Ministry of Finance allowing them to divert the funds.
Byarugaba was engulfed by prolonged silence, and could not convince the legislators how the money was diverted to aid contact tracing, case management, and surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Byarugaba was arrested in March after investigations by the Health Monitoring Unit linked him to mismanagement and causing financial loss of up to Shillings 28 billion and was released and later forced to hand over the office after 11 years of service at the facility.
