Dr Byarugaba Baterana, Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital, has been arrested by the State House Health Monitoring Unit.
As per the Unit head, Dr Warren Naamara’ they conducted the process of arrest in order to help in the follow-up on investigations around the mismanagement of the hospital.
Furthermore, Dr Naamara stated that “Yes, we invited him to explain a few things to us in a bid to clarify before excusing himself.
And Dr Warren Namara also stated that the national referral hospital has been under their radar for the past couple of months following various concerns about its management and the quality of services generated to Ugandans.
“We are investigating the hospital’s mismanagement of resources, medications, and equipment. He is responsible as the hospital’s director, and we invited him to assist us with the ongoing investigations in the middle of last month, “He stated.
In the initial period of February, they arrested the four people over an Shs20.5b fraud at Mulago Hospital.
This was in response to an audit report from the State House Health Monitoring Unit, which stated that the hospital was involved in the irregular recruitment of two firms that generated documents in order to win a tender to provide services at the hospital.
However, it seems like this is not a reason for Dr Baterana’s arrest in the State House Unit is on record to have conducted an audit into the hospital following orders from President Museveni.
According to the audit, there has been improper accounting of funds at the hospital and forgery of accounting details by hospital service providers. These have caused a heavy financial loss to the government.
The report also cited embezzlement and gross office mishandling by specific big wigs at the hospital.
Police arrested Dr Baterana on March 1, Tuesday afternoon, because they found it mis-management of the national referral hospital during the investigation.
