Mr. Nume,
According to the piece you posted earlier, "Global Fund took us off guard - Muhwezi", the government was unaware of mess in the PMU in the Ministry of Health.
I don't know if Muhwezi is waiting for a line of people waving placards saying "THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA AGES AGO!" outside his office in order to wake up to this fact. But even this might not do the trick. Knowing his type and his career, itd take a hard kick to where the sun don't shine to barely wake him from his slumber.
The mere fact that it takes an international NGO to get involved at the grassroots level to deliver medical services, means that the state is not only incapable, but that it is quite broken, e.g. see Prof. Eudora Chikwendu's 2004 "AIDS/HIV -- When the State Fails: NGOs in Grassroots AIDS Care", which appeared in Dialectical Anthropology, Vol. 28, Nos. 3-4,pp. 245 - 259.
After you read the piece below, you will not fail to wonder how Mukula, Muhwezi & Museveni can pull off the trick of pretending to be surprised by the Global Funds action, all with such straight faces! But then again, these chaps have had years of experience of farting in the marketplace and afterwards having the temerity of asking where the stink is issuing from.
Read on.
Ssemakula <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dr. Sarah Matovu,
Thank you so very much for this bwino. It shows very clearly that the project was doomed right from the start. It'd appear that 'sticky fingers' were preferred over competence.
Mr. Mukula is now professing ignorance, what a shame! Like he thinks the Global Fund has forgotten his machinations. Both Mukula and Muhwezi have a lot of explaining to do. Even the government watchdog, the IGG, was in on the action, seeing how they bent over backwards to have their man appointed.
The irony is that, the head honcho, Mu7 is now making a fuss of appointing a commission to enquire into this scandal. As usual, no deadline on when the commission is supposed to report or when the report will be released. Such is the rot in his government. I wonder who he thinks he is fooling this time after his henchmen have been caught with thier hands in the cookie jar!
ps: Don't hold your breath waiting for heads to roll for this scam.
Sarah Matovu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Mukulu Semakula, this may answer your queries. Sarah matovuRegional News
Monday, December 20, 2004
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Outcry in Uganda Over Top Global Fund Job
By DAVID KAIZA
THE EASTAFRICAN
THE MINISTRY of Health in Uganda has been accused of ignoring the recommendations of an international management consulting firm when appointing the top official of the country's chapter of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
In a statement issued last week, Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU) said that in interviews conducted by Ernst and Young in 2003, three candidates Dr John Mutumba, Dr Gamba Osige and Ms Eva Magamba had emerged as best suited for the posts of project co-ordinator, civil society and private sector co-ordinator, and public sector co-ordinator respectively.
However, the ministry proceeded to appoint the second-best candidate, Dr Tiberius Muheebwa, as the project co-ordinator of the Uganda Global Fund on Tuberculosis, Malaria and Aids (UGFATMA), a move ACCU alleges was influenced by political considerations.
"Prof Francis Omaswa, the Director General of Health Services," told The EastAfrican that both Ms Magamba and Dr Osige had been appointed, but their positions had been interchanged at the discretion of the ministry on the basis of their academic qualifications and experience and in the interests of the project.
The ACCU statement follows a complaint filed by Dr Mutumba to the Inspector General of Government on December 13 this year and copied to the Ministry of Health, the Vice President of Uganda, the Prime Minister, the Public Service Commission and Uganda Human Rights Association alleging that the ministry had flouted selection criteria and unfairly denied him the lucrative job by handpicking Dr Muheebwa.
The project is in charge of up to $202 million that has been approved for Uganda out of a global total of $2.4 billion for the Global Fund's 2005 budget. Of this, $26 million has so far been disbursed to Uganda.
Dr Mutumbas letter to the IGG reads, "The mere fact that I made myself available for the interview and went on to score highly surely spoke volumes, and ought to have put it clearly to an objective investigator my desire to fulfil the available opportunity as the most suitable project co-ordinator that I turned out to be."
However, the Minister of State for Health, Mike Mukula, dismissed the allegations of unfairness, saying Dr Mutumba did not follow proper procedures when he sat for the interview.
"Dr Mutumba is an employee of the Ministry of Health," Mr Mukula told The EastAfrican. "If you want to apply, you seek permission to allow you to apply for another position within the ministry. He didnt do that."
Mr Mukula said that, in addition to recommendations from consultants, considerations such as professional track record, security, and whether or not a candidate has been involved in corruption were taken into account in the government recruitment procedures.
However, he declined to say what criteria Dr Mutumba failed to pass. He also dismissed allegations that ethnicity had played a part in the selection.
Said Mr Mukula: "It is true that Muheebwa is from Rukungiri [western Uganda] but he is a doctor, he has worked with the World Health Organisation in other areas and he has also worked with the African Union."
Fears of political interference in the running of UGFAT-MA first emerged during the recuitment in October 2003, when the Inspector General of Government, Jotham Tumwesigye, wrote to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health ordering him to halt the exercise following widespread complaints about irregular appointments including that of Dr Muheebwa.
However, following investigations, the IGG's office upheld Dr Muheebwas appointment on the grounds that Dr Mutumba was serving as head of another project, the Nutrition and Early Childhood Development Project (NECDP).
"For the position of project co-ordinator, MoH decided not to appoint the best-ranked candidate, Dr J. Mutumba, due to the fact that he was the project co-ordinator of NECDP in the same ministry, which project was still ongoing," said a letter from the IGG's office dated December 4, 2003.
But in his December 13, 2004 response, Dr Mutumba contends that NECDP no longer existed at the time the Global Fund appointments were effected. He also says he duly informed and supplied the IGG's office with documents stating that the NECDP was not going to continue.
"It therefore baffles me when you allege that the said project was still ongoing and that there would be future funding, which even I, as project co-ordinator was not aware of, as none has to date been intimated to materialise," said Dr Mutumbas letter.
"I would invite you to reconsider your findings and decision because I am honestly and fairly the best candidate for the job and deserve as much. Otherwise I am inclined to conclude that there was corruption in your report," it adds.
Over 93 per cent of the Ugandan Population is at risk of Malaria, taking up between 25 to 40 per cent of out patient attendance. Estimates say that up to 1.4 million people in Uganda have Aids, with an estimated 150,000 critically ill, and with a high death rate of 84,000 per annum. Tuberculosis is an opportunistic illness that resurged in the presence of AIDS and now, some 3.5 per cent of the population are at risk.
The Ministry of Health has also come under fire from the Coalition for Access to Essential Medicine (CAEM), which last week accused UGFAT-MA of peddling influence, lacking transparency and failing to employ ethical standards in selecting the non-governmental organisations it works with.
"It is a concern that information is kept from the public realm, when it should be transparent and openly accessible to all parties interested. This contradicts the Global Fund principle of public/private partnership and equal participation of civil society," CAEM said in a statement .
The Ministry of Health, it alleges, delayed setting up a National Consultative Council, the supreme decision making body of the Global Fund. As a result, Uganda has received funding for only six months, instead of 18 months.
There are also fears that the Global Fund money will be used to reward political cronies, or NGOs hurriedly set up to benefit improperly from the funds.
"It was further noted that a significant percentage of civil society still doubted the selection criteria and transparency followed by the Project Monitoring Unit in selecting lead agencies," the CAEM statement said.
The districts echoed the same doubts because they were not consulted about the capacity and credibility of the selected agencies, even though these agencies were to be monitored by the respective districts.
These accusations put the Uganda government in an awkward position, coming as they do barely a month after the three East African presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania requested the approval of a fifth round of funding from the chairman of the Global Fund Board, Tommy Thompson, during a meeting in Arusha, Tanzania.
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