IGG probes health bosses over Gavi, Global Fund

Ms Irene Mulyagonja,

What you need to know:

Reason. The Inspectorate of Government is conducting investigations in regard to the mismanagement of the finances and other ministry resources

KAMPALA.

The Inspectorate of Government is investigating senior Health ministry officials over a number of allegations, among them, the questionable use of billions of shillings meant for fighting HIV/Aids and vaccinations.

Ms Irene Mulyagonja made the revelations in a confidential letter dated October 5 to the Head of Public Service and Secretary to Cabinet, Mr John Mitala.

“They are different cases and the investigations began at different points in time,” the Inspectorate Spokesperson Munira Ali said.
This newspaper has learnt that officials being investigated are those handling the Global Fund, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GaviI) and the Health Systems Strengthening Project.
The Ombudsman early this month wrote to advise Mr Mitala to lift the October 3 interdiction of Health ministry under-secretary Ronald Ssegawa Gyagenda by Permanent Secretary Asuman Lukwago.

“For the record, the Inspectorate of Government is conducting investigations with regard to the mismanagement of the finances and other resources of the Ministry of Health,” she wrote.

The PS suspended Mr Gyagenda after a whistleblower in a dossier to the IGG accused the latter of influencing award of ministry contracts to companies he co-owns. He refuted those allegations and, in his defence to the Ombudsman, instead rendered information that the ministry funds were mismanaged before he assumed office as under-secretary for Finance and Administration.

Dr Lukwago said Mr Gyagenda, concurrently designated as the ministry’s accounting officer, had “peddled lies” to the IGG and interdicted him.

The suspension was reversed within the same week, and Mr Mulyagonja noted in correspondences to both Public Service head Mitala and Treasury secretary Keith Muhakanizi that her office had discontinued investigations against the under-secretary.

PS Lukwago was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he told this newspaper earlier that the IGG had not “yet informed me” about the inquiries.

In May 2007, former Health Minister Jim Muhwezi, his two ex-junior colleagues; Capt Mike Mukula and Dr Alex Kamugisha, and a State House official, Ms Alice Kaboyo, were arrested and charged with embezzlement and abuse of office after the IGG concluded that $4.3m (Shs14.6b) Gavi monies had been misused.

The Anti-Corruption Court in January, 2013, sentenced Mr Mukula to four years in prison for embezzling Shs210 million GAVI cash. His co-accused Maj Gen Muhwezi and Dr Kamugisha were acquitted while Ms Kaboyo pleaded guilty and offered to refund the money.

It appears that ghosts from the previous projects have resurrected to jinx implementation of the Global Fund New Funding Model (NFM), a few years after the funding was restored.

IGG sources say several officials are being investigated for alleged abuse of the US$148.9 million (Shs506b) grant to support Uganda’s Malaria Reduction strategy.

“In some cases requisitions were made to conduct trainings, which did not take place,” said a source who preferred not to be named since they are not authorised to speak on the ongoing inquiries.

The scaling up of training of Village Health Teams (VHTs) and the procurement and distribution of anti-malaria drugs, especially artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT), and rapid diagnostics tests equipment, are said to have been grossly abused through inflated costs.

Other officials are implicated in misappropriation of $161 million (Shs549b) grant aimed at reducing HIV infections by 10, 000 to 4,020 within a decade to 2025.