Five officials from Nakaseke district health department have been interdicted for alleged financial impropriety and theft of government drugs. They are Badru Ssesimba, Nakaseke health Officer, Gertrude Naggayi, District Health Educator, David Ssekirinda Kibirige, District Cold Chain Assistant, Samuel Ssemyalo, a laboratory assistant attached to Wakyato health Center and Shem Mutwalime, the Health Inspector in charge of Semuto Health Sub district.
The implicated officials were interdicted by Joyce Namboozo, Nakaseke Chief Administrative Officer on orders of the Diana Atwine, head of the State house Medicines and Health Service Delivery Monitoring Unit. Namboozo explains that the officials are culpable of mismanaging undisclosed sums of money that was released by the health ministry between 2007 and 2011. The money was meant to buy drugs and equipments for health centers in the district.
Doctor Diana Atwine, head of the state house Medicines and Health Service Delivery Monitoring Unit says that the implicated officials were found in possession of government drugs and properties. She says that Badru Ssesimba, the District health office is accused of embezzlement and forging accountabilities. She explains during a recent visit to the district her team arrested the five officials and handed them to police but they were released on police bond as investigations are ongoing.
Atwine says that the suspects will be charged with abuse of offices, misappropriation of funds, and theft. She however, declines to reveal how much money was mismanaged by the implicated officials saying the matter is still under investigations. The implicated officials have declined to comment on their interdiction.
Trouble for the officials started in December last year, after residents under Friends of Luweero Triangle petitioned president Yoweri Museveni to investigate Nakaseke district officials for alleged mismanagement of government drugs and embezzlement. President Yoweri Museveni ordered the State house Medicines and Health Service Delivery Monitoring Unit under Doctor Diana Atwine to unearth the rot in Nakaseke’s health care system and prosecute the culprit.
