ENTEBBE: The government has already spent up to 400 billion shillings on the stalled Lubowa International Specialized Hospital Uganda.
A State Minister of Finance and Planning who is in charge of General Duties told Parliament’s Finance Committee on Wednesday that this is what happened. He was there to defend the Ministry’s budget for the next fiscal year.
Musasizi’s revelation comes after MPs asked for an update on the construction of the facility, which began on March 12, 2019.
Financial performance report: Musasizi said that the government paid 234.089 billion in three parts in 2021, and 166.401 billion in two parts in 2022.
In the current financial year, Musasizi revealed that the government will cash out an additional 319 billion shillings, also in two different installments, in July 2022. As part of the total cost of the project, the Direct Agreement says that the hospital will cost about 1.3 trillion.
Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, said the cost of the hospital also includes medicine for one year and training of Ugandan health professionals.
Ggoobi said that the project, which was supposed to be finished in June 2022, has been pushed back until September 2024 because of a lot of rain in September 2019 and January 2020.
Furthermore, Ggoobi also pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown imposed by the government from March 2020 until January 2022 caused more delays as “efforts to encamp 500 workers on the site were derailed by the continued outbreak of COVID-19 among the workers.”
While appearing before the Health Committee of Parliament on Tuesday, Eng. George Otim, the Acting Commissioner of Health Infrastructure in the Ministry of Health, shocked MPs when he said that Enrica Pinetti, the proprietor of the hospital, was not at the site.
Because the government didn’t spend money on the Lubowa International Specialized Hospital project, Eng Otim, who works for the Ministry of Finance, can’t watch the work at the site because he hasn’t been able to.
The 264-bed capacity covers 72,000 square metres of government land located in Lubowa, Wakiso District. After the multi-complex facility is finished, the government is expected to save 258 billion dollars a year by not having to spend that money on medical tourism outside of the country.
