MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were stunned after officials of Moroto Regional Referral Hospital told them that four ambulances reportedly allocated to the hospital cannot be traced.
The revelation was made when hospital officials appeared before the committee to respond to queries raised in the Auditor General’s report for the 2024/25 financial year.
The hospital delegation was led by Dr Stephen Pande Legesi, while Principal Administrator Paul Ajuk also appeared before the committee.
According to the Auditor General’s report, several ambulances had been allocated to Moroto Regional Referral Hospital. However, when auditors visited the hospital, they could not trace four of the vehicles.
The committee, led during the session by its deputy chairperson, Sarah Lwasansula, pressed the hospital officials to explain what had happened to the ambulances.
“Where are the four ambulances that the report says were allocated to the hospital but are missing?” Lwasansula asked.
The question appeared to catch the hospital officials off guard.
Ajuk told the MPs that the hospital had not received the four ambulances and therefore could not explain their whereabouts.
“We have not received these four ambulances, and we cannot trace them,” Ajuk told the committee.
The MPs then asked whether the hospital had taken any steps to establish what happened to the vehicles after learning that they could not be accounted for.
Ajuk said the hospital conducted a traceability audit but failed to find any of the four ambulances.
“We went ahead and did a traceability audit, and the four were not traced anywhere,” he said.
The revelation left the committee concerned about how government vehicles worth billions of shillings could be allocated to a regional referral hospital without the hospital receiving them or knowing where they were.
James Waluswaka, the Bunyole West County MP, proposed that the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) be brought in to establish what happened to the ambulances.
“Let us involve the CID to interest itself in the matter and trace these vehicles,” Waluswaka said.
The four ambulances are valued at about Shs5.62 billion, according to the information presented to the committee.
The MPs also raised concern over medical equipment that the Auditor General’s report indicated had been received by the hospital but could not be traced.
Among the equipment in question was a neonatal ventilator and other medical equipment with a reported value of about Shs4.9 billion.
Gilbert Olanya, the Kilak South County MP, called for a criminal investigation, saying the matter involved public money.
“Madam Chair, I propose that CID investigate the matter because this is taxpayers’ money and so must be investigated,” Olanya said.
Waluswaka also asked the committee to summon officials from the Ministry of Health to explain how the ambulances and medical equipment were dispatched and why the hospital could not account for them.
“Chair, I also request that we invite the ministry and also travel to Moroto to see this,” he said.
Lwasansula directed the CID to investigate the matter in coordination with the Ministry of Health.
“CID, you are directed to do an investigation with the ministry to know whether the equipment was dispatched, and, secondly, to investigate the whereabouts of the four ambulances,” Lwasansula ruled.
The investigation is expected to establish whether the ambulances and equipment were actually dispatched to Moroto Regional Referral Hospital, where they were delivered, and how they came to be missing from the hospital’s records and physical assets.
