PAC’s visit to Lubowa hospital construction site pushed to 26th April

Speaking in response to the management of Lubowa Hospital delaying the PAC and Ministry of Health’s tour of the facility, The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson, Mr. Muwanga Kivumbi, has declared that Parliament will not back down from its efforts to hold the contractor for Lubowa Specialized International Hospital responsible.

Mr. Kivumbi also demanded that the results of the special audit on the hospital be made public by the Auditor General.

Kivumbi said that they implore the Auditor General to make the special audit report available to the public.

The Speaker was previously informed by the Auditor General that the audit report was completed in January.

The chief operating officer of Lubowa Hospital, Mr. Charles Byaruhanga, declined the planned facility tour in a letter sent last week to Dr. Diana Atwine, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health.

Yesterday was planned as the facility tour for the group of PAC members and representatives from the Health Ministry, headed by Dr. Atwine.

However, Mr. Byaruhanga responded to Dr. Atwine’s letter from April 11 by stating that they had begun full-scale construction work on February 14 and were therefore overtaken by risk policy.

He claimed that the facility lacked the safety gear and gumboots needed to facilitate the inspection.

In order to make up for the oversight, the planned dates have been moved to April 26.

Dr. Atwine was informed by the contractor, Finansi/Ishu Construction, that in order to guarantee visitor safety, they require each visitor’s name and size for shoes and personal protective equipment.

“We’ve been informed that the Madam [Enrica Pinetti] is out of the country, but we won’t relent. We hope no further obstacles will arise,” Kivumbi said.

The project is still mainly hidden from the public’s view, despite being dogged by controversy and having cost over Shs476 billion without making any noticeable progress.