Officials from National Medical Stores (NMS) on Monday faced it rough after failing to explain how they implemented the Sh27bn given to them as supplementary budget for procurement of Malaria drugs.
NMS officials led by Deputy General Manager, Apollo Mwesigye were appearing before the Budget Committee of Parliament Chaired by Ntenjeru North Mp Amos Lugolobi seeking for Parliament’s approval of the supplementary budget that has already been spent.
The MPs sitting on this committee questioned Mwesigye on why the biggest portion of Sh94bn of the total b (Sh110bn) meant for the purchase of Malaria (50bn), ARVs (50bn) and TB drugs (Sh10bn) was diverted to cater for only ARVs.
In his explanation, Mwesigye said it was done on orders from the Ministry of Finance who later told them to request for a supplementary that was used to purchase Malaria drugs.
The MPs wondered how they managed to provide malaria drugs on only Sh5bn for 9 months before the Supplementary was granted by the Ministry of Finance.
“This suppression of malaria budget is an indication that there is exorbitant inclusion of money in NMS budget since they can even fulfill their needs on lower budgets than what they ask for,” noted Kasanda North MP Patrick Nsamba.
The committee Chairperson Lugolobi noted that Mwesigye failed to convince the committee whether the expenditure was unforeseen, unavoidable and could not veer the existing budget to meet it.
Lugolobi asked him to return to the committee with the Minister of Health and the Permanent Secretary of Finance to shed more light on the supplementary of Sh27bn that is already in use.