KAMPALA, UGANDA – Members of Parliament sitting on the Public Accounts Committee (Central) were on Thursday left in shock after discovering a high number of neonatal deaths at Mulago Specialist Women and Neonatal Hospital, despite its status as a top referral hospital.
The committee, chaired by Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi, visited the hospital management yesterday to scrutinize audit queries for the financial year 2022/23. During the visit, they were informed by a whistleblower of an alarming rate of child mortality deaths at the hospital, despite having all the necessary specialists.
The committee also uncovered a financial loss of Shs 72 million due to the hospital’s Senior Accountant, Lucas Birungi, failing to include it as part of non-tax revenue during the audit query. Efforts by the Executive Director of the Hospital, Dr. Evelyn Nabunya, to rationalize the issue were unsuccessful, and the committee decided to hand over the accountant to the CID for interrogation due to inconsistent statements.
Dr. Nabunya attributed the hospital’s underperformance on non-tax revenue (NTR) of Shs 7 billion against a target of Shs 9 billion to the fact that most patients are referrals who are waived from paying for services. However, Committee Chairperson Kivumbi and fellow members were unconvinced by this explanation, questioning why a highly subsidized hospital like Mulago would underperform on NTR and fail to collect 100% of revenues due to waivers.
The discovery has raised concerns about the hospital’s management and the high number of neonatal deaths, which the committee has vowed to investigate further.
