Three ministers who were scheduled to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probing the Commonwealth summit expenditures this week have written to the committee saying they are busy.
The committee had invited the ministers to clarify issues regarding the country’s hosting of the summit.
The committee chairman, Nandala Mafabi, named the ministers as agriculture minister Hope Mwesigye who has written to PAC to reschedule her appointment and foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa who has also asked for more time.
State minister for tourism Serapio Rukundo who was also supposed to face the committee is reportedly in Germany.
The committee members said the ministers’ excuses will not be accepted “because they were derailing the committee’s work”.
MP Theodore Ssekikubo proposed that the ministers’ passports be confiscated to avoid “escaping.”
New Vision March 2010
Officials held over drugs shortage
Three senior health ministry officials were yesterday arrested for allegedly causing loss of drugs worth sh2b.
Dr. Richard Ndyomugyenyi, the programme manager of the Malaria control programme, his deputy Dr. Myers Lugemwa and the administrative manager, Martin Shibek, were arrested last evening.
The unit, headed by Dr. Diana Atwine, started investigating the Uganda Malaria Research Centre following irregularities in the documentation for anti-malarial drugs as regards stock movement.
The centre is headed by a research officer, Dr James Sekitoleko, and is under the malaria control programme.
New Vision 10th March 2010
Mallinga wants legislators to probe shortage of drugs Tuesday, 9th March, 2010
Health minister, Dr. Stephen Mallinga wants Parliament to investigate reports of shortage of drugs in health centres.
He was responding to concerns raised by MPs yesterday that there was a shortage of drugs in health centres and hospitals countrywide.
The MPs, who were reacting to a statement by the internal affairs state minister, Matia Kasaija, on the Monday helicopter accident, were concerned about the plight of people in areas which are not easily accessible.
Mallinga said he wanted Parliament to investigate the units, pointing out that the ministry had recently discovered that there were drugs at the National Medical Stores but the districts were not ordering for them.
New Vision 10th March 2010
Crackdown on illegal clinics long overdue
THE move taken by the Ministry of Health to conduct an inspection exercise against unlicensed clinics offering medical services, as well as unqualified people operating as medical personnel, has been long overdue.
The operation, jointly coordinated by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council, the Allied Health Professionals Council and the Nurses’ Council, deserve all the support and cooperation of the medical professionals and the public.
There is need to establish a permanent mechanism for closely monitoring health facilities, private and public, to ensure they observe required standards and that the health professionals adhere to their code of conduct. People who are aggrieved by the conduct of health professionals or institutions currently find it difficult to get redress.
New Vision 10th March 2010
Gulu officials probe ghost teachers
EDUCATION minister Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire has called for an investigation into claims of ghost teachers in Gulu district. The probe follows reports that the Amuru LC5 vice-chairperson, Justine Lungajul Oloya, has been receiving salary as a ghost teacher of Ongako Secondary School in Gulu.
The district accountant general, G.O.L Obwoch, said Oloya had been deleted from the Government payroll. He last received salary in July 2009.
New Vision 10th March 2010
Army told to account for guns in Teso
THE army should account for the guns they gave to the Arrow Boys during the Lord’s Resistance Army war in Teso, the Amuria district LC5 chairperson, Julius Ochen, has said.
He said many guns had not been returned by the people who helped to flush Kony out of Teso.
He said if they are not removed, the killings which have been taking place in the villages will be blamed on the Government.
He said the people allowed to carry guns are the UPDF, Prisons, Police and the Uganda Wildlife Authority as well as other licensed companies like security firms.
Kankiriho asked the leadership in Teso to put aside their differences and unite on matters of security.
Daily Monitor 10th March 2010
Top ministers face foreign travel ban
Cabinet ministers who supervised projects as part of the November 2007 Chogm should not be allowed to travel abroad until they have accounted for their actions, MPs investigating the matter said yesterday. Members of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee also demanded for the ministers’ passports to be impounded and for donor countries to blacklist the officials and deny them entry permits and visas.
Officials in hot seat over lack of accountability
Atleast 50 officials in Moroto District face arrest over failure to account for the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) I money, Daily Monitor has learnt.
The Chief Administrative Officer, Mr Stephen Ouma, while displaying a list of the defaulters yesterday said since 2007 he had been calling the officials to account for the money but none has responded.
Three Malaria Control Programme managers arrested
Two top managers and an administrator of the Malaria Control Programme have been arrested and charged under the Anti Corruption Act of 2009 on allegations of negligence and theft of government drugs worth Shs2 billion. The trio were arrested yesterday by the State House operatives and police. They were later detained at Central Police Station in Kampala.
Health Service and Delivery Monitoring Unit was established by President Museveni to reduce theft of drugs in public hospitals.
This is the 80th case of suspected misappropriate of drug funds that has been recorded by the unit and close to 100 people have been arrested and charged for suspected drug theft.