Simon Nume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
An ABC Guide To Trace The Stolen Global Funds
In the wake of the Global Funds Corruption Scandal, the Uganda government has vowed to identify and confiscate the properties of those who misappropriated the money.
In order to be able to discover who took the money and where the money ended up, this investigation will have to study the structure especially of the Ministry of Health, to identify who authorised the expenditure of this money, and also identify the individual recipients in the NGOs private companies and sub-district commitees who received the meony.
Any relationships between the authorisers of the expenditure and the recipients of the money should be established in order to follow the trail of the lost money.
In order to unveil the trail of the Global Funds money one has to understand the structure of the Health industry in Uganda.
A Centralised And Privatised Ministry Of Health
In 2000, the health industry in Uganda was changed, when the government of Uganda (MOH)
signed a fairly secret Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU), between itself and all the main donor agencies in the western world, under what is known in world bank speak as a Sector Wide Approach .(SWAp) Although there are SWAPs in Ghana, Zambia and the Phillipines, the Ugandan SWAp seems to be different.
www.sti.ch/pdfs/swap351.pdf
hhtp://www.sti.ch/pdfs/swap171.pdf
Although the MoU is not a legal framework, and runs out in 2006, it provided the infrastructure which changed the MOH to support the decentralised levels in the implementation of the HSSP,. In the process the MOH became a centralised but privatised organisation ostensibly to improve the health benefits of Ugandans with the help of the donor countries.
Maybe to reward the government for allowing the implementation of such a SWAp , the MoU agreed that the government monitors itself through a joint Supervision Mission, and report to the development partners (donors) every year. The government immediately realised that with the SWAp/ decentralisation, the donors would end up funding the NRM/Museveni government up to grass root level , thus ensuring the continuity of Museveni in power. The only price the Uganda government had to pay was to allow the donors own the drug procurement in Uganda, but as long as he had national Medical Stores, he could still get apiece of the procurement pie as well.
A win-win situation for both sides.
Under the SWAp, the MOH has redefined its role from one of service provider to that of policy making. The role of the MOH is now to provide guidelines, training and capacity building, to monitor the health sector, and co-ordinate the donors.
How The SWAp works
The best description of how the MOH works is to study and analyse the speech made by Brig Jim Muhwezi, the Minister Of Health, at the Seam Conference on Dec 10 2003 in Zanzibar.
This conference was organised by three American pharmaceutical companies and the role
Of Jim Muhwezi was to explain how the Ugandan SWAP works.
www.msh.org/seam/confererence2003/Agenda/AgendaDay1
How to Use the SWAp Structure To Trace The Lost Global Funds
Rigid Decentralisation
Muhwezi explained that the government decentralised the provision of medical services by
creating 56 local districts which are tasked with providing health services at the local level.
Out of the 56 districts, the government set out to create 214 individual health sub-districts county wide. Appointments to these sub-districts are made by the MOH , and are under the control of the Minister of State for Primary Health Care, Dr Alex Kamugisha.
These sub-districts receive direct funding from the treasury, as well as the regional hospitals still owned by the government.
An identification of the members of these health sub-districts would indicate where some of the stolen money ends up.
Central Essential Medicines Credit Line
The MoU encouraged the government to recognise and promote particular sections of the private sector through which to channel the distribution of the bulk of the medical services in Uganda.
There are four types of private sector organisations which the Ministry Of Health acknowledges and uses;
Religious NGOs,
Other Community based NGOs,
Private Clinics, pharmacies and private hospitals,
Traditional healers.
These private health providers are funded by the government through a Central Essential Medicines Credit Line
These private sector organisations (NGOs and private )are allocated money on credit to provide public health services, based on an allocation criteria determined by the MOH.
These facilities receive credit to buy drugs using public grants and loans and the recipients are determined by the National Medical Stores which is run by Robert Rutaagi ( a close connection of Jim Muwhezi) and the Joint Medical Stores M.D.
In the case of an NGO, the NGO must be cleared by the Presidents Office, while in the case of private facilities, they must belong stipulated trade bodies like Uganda Private Medical Practitioners Association (UPMPA), or Uganda Private Midwives Association (UPMA) , whose membership and leadership is usually a closely guarded secret. A public exosure of the heads of these otherwise innocent regulatory bodies would also reveal where some of the money is.
The list of organisations which received the lost Global Funds money are mostly in this sector. An identification of the recipents of the money, and their connection to the National Medical Stores, Joint Medical Stores, and other AIDS/health agencies would reveal the path of the lost money.
I have identified a lot of these recipients in another report to follow this one.
Centralised Procurement and Controlled Sales
While claiming to have decentralised the health business, the SWAp introduced hitherto unseen centralisation in the Uganda drugs industry.
The MOH introduced very rigid and tight control in procurement of drugs, by ensuring that only government and government approved organisations can import, store, distribute or sell drugs in the country. , through the Drugs Initiative Project
In Uganda there are only 4 organisations which are allowed to import and distribute drugs through the Drugs Initiative .
Medical Access Uganda Ltd
A company made up by representatives of international pharmaceutical companies like Glaxo-Wellcome, Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche Products Ltd and Marck Sharpe & Dohme.
This company is supposed to procure anti HIV/ADIS (ARV) drugs at reduced costs from the foreign manufacturers and pass the low cost on to the Ugandan AIDS patients
Joint Clinical Research Centre
This is the non-profit AIDS research unit owned by the Ministry of Defence, Ministry Of Health, and Ministry of Defence based at Butikiro, Mengo.
This facility is the number one in AIDS research and has received a lot of grants for carrying out often dangerous AIDS research on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies.
It was recently heavily involved in the scandalous Neviraprine trials with US Adids researchers. It is allowed to import and re-sell ARV drugs and vaccines to Ugandans.
This facility is run by Dr. P.N Mugyenyi who is also closely connected to Jim Muhwezi
National Medical Stores
This not-forprofit organisation is the only one allowed to procure all non-AVR drugs for sale to government owned hospitals and clinics.
It was however embroiled in a scandal in 2003, when NMS Director Robert Rutaagi was trying to re-sale ARV drugs purchased by NMS from the UK to two private companies in Uganda.
With only 10,000 Ugandans able to afford the ARV drugs, it was not considered suitable for NMS to try and make ( presumably a private profit) through their resale.
The NMS is run by Robert Rutaagi, a close connection of Jim Muhwezi.
Joint Medical Stores
This is the fourth unit allowed to procure drugs for non-government facilities under the Drugs Initiative.
So in order to trace WHO has the money, the investigators should start with studying MOH structure and the rest is very easy really.
Simon Nume
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page _______________________________________________
Ugandanet mailing list
[email protected]
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
Does your mail provider give you access to messages sent to other POP email accounts, like your work account? Get Yahoo! Mail
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
