By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: Officials of Mulago National Referral Hospital top management are in trouble for allegedly failing to account for Shs245m.
This revelation was made on Monday when the Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital Dr. Baterana Byarugaba together with other officials were before the Public Accounts Committee. (https://www.srmfre.com/) The committee Chaired by Nathan Nandala Mafabi, the Budadiri West MP issued the Mulago team a two day Monday to account for more than Shs245m or else face the law. Dr. Byarugaba and his team had appeared before PAC 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 Shs2.89 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 Shs2.45 billion but only Shs2.31 billion was remitted, leaving a balance of Shillings Shs145 million whose accountability is not shown. Nandala also noted another unspent Shs98 million in the 2017/2018 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,” Nandala told Byarugaba and team. Nandala also pointed to doctored figures in the financial statements of the hospital. While explaining the inconsistencies in the figures, Dr. Byarugaba passed the ball to the Senior Accountant, Charles Mwasa, who argued that the Shs145 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. 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. That prompted Nandala to give the Mulago hospital team two days to rectify the anomalies in their books of account, because there is no way the Committee can proceed on probing the cooked up figures. The Mulago Hospital team is expected to return to PAC on Thursday to present accountability for missing money.
