Lira Hospital On The Spot For Failing To Utilize UGX 665M For Recruitment Of Staff

Lira Regional Referral Hospital is on the spot for failing to utilize 665 million shillings for recruitment of staff.

While appearing before the Public Accounts Committee of parliament, the hospital Director Dr. Stephen
Obbo was asked to explain why out of a total approved budget of 8.9 billion shillings for the financial
year 2018/2019 only 8.23bn was spent.

Dr. Obbo noted that the unspent balance of Shillings 665m had been meant for recruitment of specialist
staff at the hospitals but the recruitment exercise had failed to take place.

The committee chaired by Budadiri west MP Nandala Mafabi quizzed Dr. Obbo on why he had budgeted
for money that he had never intended to use.

In his report the auditor general noted that the approved staff structure was 428 positions and out of
this only 292 positions are occupied representing a staffing gap of 32%.

Dr. Obbo argued that the hospital does not recruit directly but has to apply for permission to recruit
through the ministry of public service which then refers the request to the Health service commission
and the Ministry of Health.

However, when asked to provide evidence of his attempt to seek permission to start the recruitment
process Dr. Obbo failed to produce a letter to Public Service requesting permission to recruit.

MPs rejected a letter he produced dated 25th November 2019 stating that it was written long after the
financial year in question had ended.

The Bukoto East MP Florence Namayanja told the principal human
resource officer Twinomugisha Apollo that the letter produced was irrelevant to the matter at hand.

Twinomugisha attempted to explain that an earlier correspondence to the Public Service ministry had
been written in January 2019 and that the rest of the letters were follow up correspondences but the
committee rejected his explanation since the letter he produced as proof of earlier correspondence did
not bear any receipt stamp.

The committee has handed over the unmarked letter to the CID officer attached to PAC for
investigations into whether the Public Service ministry received the correspondence.