Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has given Butabika National Referral Hospital, an ultimatum of one week to present records of implemented activities in the financial year 2018/2019.
This followed the failure by the hospital administrators to explain why the hospital had recorded several unimplemented and partially implemented activities despite absorbing 96 per cent of the released funds.
The hospital administrators led by the Acting Executive Director Dr Juliet Nakku on Tuesday appeared before the committee to respond to queries in the Auditor General’s report for the 2018/2019 financial year.
According to the report, 14.3 billion shillings was released to the hospital in the financial year but 13.9 billion shillings was used.
The report notes that out of 19 quantified activities assessed, only 6 activities were fully implemented, 3 activities had no target and indicator metric and two were not implemented while 8 were partially implemented.
Dr Nakku explained that the hospital could not carry out x-ray investigations and research on mental health since the x-ray machine had broken down and they had to refer patients to Naguru and Murchison Bay hospitals.
She also notes that some of the partially implemented activities were because the hospital did not receive the anticipated number of patients. Out of the planned 9,350 patient admissions, the hospital admitted 6,983 patients.
PAC Chairperson Nathan Nandala Mafabi tasked Nakku to explain what had happened to the x-ray films they had purchased. However, Nakku noted that the Ministry of Health allows them to transfer the material to other hospitals where the patients are referred.
However, when Nandala noted that there was no evidence of the transfer, Dr Nakku promised to provide the evidence later.
Nandala noted that before the committee can dispose of the query the hospital has one week to present a detailed list with cost figures of output performance.
