Officials from Uganda Cancer Institute tasked over accountability

Legislators sitting on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday queried officials from the Uganda Cancer Institute over the accountability of the government resources received in the financial years 2016/17 and 2017/2018.

The officials were tasked to explain the cause of stock out of medicine despite the institute having un utilised resources to a tune of Shs 2.1 billion in the financial year 2016/2017.

The MPs feared that the stock out of medicine and other health supplies may cause disruption of treatment of patients.

The officials led by the executive director of the institute Dr. Jackson Orem had appeared before PAC to  answer queries raised in the Auditor General’s report for two consecutive financial years 2016/2017 and 2017/2018.

First, they were tasked to explain their failure in recruiting staff at the Uganda Cancer Institute despite receiving Shs 1.2 billion for the said activity.

According to the Auditor General the approved staff establishment structure is 283 posts but only 185 positions had been filled leaving 98 vacancies.

The MPs said this has impacted on the service delivery due to work overload and fatigue of the experienced available staff.

The legislators were also concerned with state of the institute in addition with the stock out of medicine and other health supplies.

Efforts by the accountant of the institute, Ignatius Ndawula to provide accountability proved futile as his submission contained several inconsistencies.

This forced the committee to give an ultimatum of one week to the officials in order to realign their documents.