More rot in Mulago hospital management continues to come out, with a senior official revealing that the national referral hospital was supplied with beans mixed with stones to be given as food to in-patients.
Assistant Commissioner for Support Services, Alison Kantarama confirms that the incident occurred in February 2011. She adds that the hospital was going to pay for the 19 bags of beans mixed with stones until cooks complained about the quality.
Uganda Radio Network has seen documents revealing that the issue became controversial, leading to an investigation and a directive by the management not to have the suppliers paid. It is not clear however if the supplier, who Mulago has refused to name, was still paid for their business.
Mulago hospital currently budgets 23 million shillings every month to feed the 1,500 in-patients admitted to the general ward. These are mostly poor patients who cannot afford food on their own and are supplied free food by government through the hospital budget.
The hospital has been running the same food budget for almost 10 years without any adjustments.
An internal memo signed by Kantarama, on February 14, 2011, directed the Principal Procurement Officer to immediately arrange the return of the beans to the unnamed supplier.
In the memo, Kantarama points out that the beans mixed with stones is not fit for human consumption, leave alone for the patients. The same memo also warns the procurement officer, Alfred Opyem, to take responsibility for the supply of the food at the food stores.
The memo is copied to the Executive Director, the Principal Internal Auditor, the Principal Catering Officer and the in charge of Stores at the hospital.
When contacted on phone, Opyem confirmed that the incident took place but down played its impact as irrelevant. He said it’s not news to him.
He later referred our journalist to the Public Relations Officer, Dan Kimosho, who is currently out of the country.
But Kantarama said she investigated the matter when it was brought to her attention by the catering department, following information that bad food had been delivered late in the evening after working hours on February 4, 2011. She said she thought the delivery after work was in itself suspicious.
