Statehouse pins Mulago hospital boss Dr. Baterana for lost Shs28.8b

By Ben Musanje

2^nd March 2022

The Statehouse Health Monitoring Unit has cleared the air about the arrest and ongoing investigations against Dr Byarugaba Baterana, the Executive Director Mulago National Referral Hospital.

Baterana was arrested along with other five senior officials from Mulago hospital on Monday this week by the Statehouse Health Monitoring Unit, which was established by President Museveni to investigate corruption in the Health Sector.

According to the Unit Executive Director Dr. Warren Namara, Dr. Baterana troubles stem from the shs28.8 billion allegedly spent by the national referral hospital but unaccounted for.

Namara noted that following complaints by some members of the public in April last year, they started an investigation into the procurement processes, drugs, human resource management and finances at the hospital leading to a number of queries that culminated into Baterana’s arrest.

A total of 65 staff both serving and retired were interviewed and statements recorded and so far it has been established that a total of shs974 million is unaccounted for the period of two years of July 2019 to 2021.

Dr.Namara says that the accounting officer Baterana failed to notify the Accountant General about missing vouchers amounting to shs5.27 billion.

According to the statement, in November 2016, Mulago contracted two companies including MS Setramaco International Limited and MS Convention World Limited to provide a number of services including running the laundry machines, central sterile supply department and steam boilers among others.

Dr. Namara further noted that investigations based on forged job cards worked completion certificates and duplicated activities indicated that the two companies were paid by Mulago close to shs20 billion but this was never accounted for causing loss to the government under dubious and fictitious payments.

The State House Health Monitoring Unit also explained that investigations unearthed suspicious procurement processes of medicines and other medical supplies done by private health facilities including First Pharmacy.

He explained that further investigations indicated that there were anomalies in the said procurement from the private pharmacy.

The State House Health Monitoring Unit boss also noted that they found several other anomalies with the procurement process and supply of drugs to Mulago hospital.