Dr. Dianna Atwiine appearing before the committee on Thursday(Photo/courtesy)
Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Dr. Diana Atwine and her Undersecretary Ronald Ssegawa have been handed to CID office at Parliament to record statements on the ongoing probe of alleged diversion of funds.
The Public Accounts Committee on Thursday grilled Ministry of Health officials led by Dr. Atwine over diversion and mischarge of over Shs4.8bn, part of which was meant for construction of Pediatric surgery in regional referral hospitals as highlighted by the Auditor general’s FY 2017/18 report.
The Public Finance Management Act requires authorization from the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury before any allocated funds are diverted for any other unintended use.
The Undersecretary Ssegawa acknowledged the diversion saying that part of the money in question amounting to Shs2.2bn was used for rehabilitating and expanding Kayunga hospital- a project which had not been budgeted for. Committee MPs wondered why the Ministry officials made such a glaring grave mistake to divert public funds, prompting Aruu South MP Odonga Otto to move a motion that Ssegawa and Dr. Atwine should be handled to the CID for further investigations into the matter.
Committee chairperson Okin Ojara immediately adjourned the meeting to allow the suspects records statements with CID office at Parliament.
“The Accounting officer [Dr Atwine], you are personally responsible for this. We request you and your undersecretary to make a call to our CID after this meeting,” Okin said.
By 1:00pm, Dr. Atwine had finished recording her statement and was spotted leaving Parliament premises.
