The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Central has ordered investigations into the alleged disappearance and diversion of medical equipment and ambulances worth billions of shillings reportedly procured by the Ministry of Health for Moroto Regional Referral Hospital.
The decision followed revelations that Moroto Regional Referral Hospital has no designated intensive care unit (ICU), while some equipment supplied to the facility has remained idle, been diverted to other units or could not be physically traced.
The Auditor General’s report for the 2024/2025 financial year indicates that physical inspections conducted on September 12, 2025, found that the hospital had two PSA oxygen plants valued at Shs3.726 billion. However, the plants had reportedly been non-functional for about three years.
The report further indicates that the Ministry of Health procured and dispatched 18 ambulances valued at Shs5.062 billion to Moroto Regional Referral Hospital.
However, auditors found only three ambulances, registration numbers UG 6663M, UG 6838M and UG 6839M, at the hospital during their inspection.
The Hospital Director, Dr Stephen Pande, told the committee that management had managed to trace some of the ambulances to other health facilities within the region but could not establish the whereabouts of four of them.
The findings prompted PAC Central, chaired by Vice Chairperson Sarah Lwansasula, to demand explanations from the hospital management and consider investigations by the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) attached to Parliament.
The Auditor General’s representatives told MPs that the audit team obtained delivery notes from the Ministry of Health showing that equipment had been dispatched to different regional referral hospitals, including Moroto.
The auditors then attempted to physically verify the equipment at the hospital following complaints that much of the ICU equipment supplied during the COVID-19 period was either not functioning or could not be located.
The audit report and management responses showed discrepancies in the status of several items. Some equipment was reported as available but not in use, while other items were recorded as not having been received by the hospital.
Among the equipment reported as not received were an ICT monitor and an ICT compressor.
Other items, including a mobile X-ray machine, blood gas analyser, central patient monitoring unit, ICU beds, neonatal ventilator, patient monitors and an oxygen plant, were reported as available but, in several cases, not in use.
The auditors said they could not establish the physical location of some of the equipment because management did not provide sufficient evidence to verify where the items were.
The situation angered MPs, who questioned why hospital management had not taken stronger action after the audit first raised the concerns.
Paul Ajur, the Principal Hospital Administrator at Moroto, told the committee that he arrived at the hospital in 2023, after some of the equipment had reportedly been delivered, and therefore needed further follow-up to establish what happened.
However, Lwansasula questioned whether he had been part of the audit process and what action he had taken after being presented with the findings.
The committee chairperson challenged the hospital leadership to explain what action it had taken between the time the audit findings were communicated and its appearance before PAC.
The Auditor General’s representative explained that auditors could not conclude that all the equipment was missing because hospital management had reported that some items were available but not in use.
However, in cases where the hospital could not show auditors the equipment or provide its location, the auditors were unable to verify the assets.
Bunyole West MP James Waluswaka proposed that CID investigate the matter and establish what happened to the equipment and the money used to procure it.
Waluswaka said the government had spent about Shs4.9 billion on the equipment, but the hospital was unable to account for items reportedly destined for the facility.
Elgon County MP Ignatius Mudimi Wamakuyu, who seconded the proposal, said the investigation should not stop at Moroto Regional Referral Hospital but should also cover the Ministry of Health and officials involved in the procurement and delivery of the equipment.
The committee members said the discrepancy between Ministry of Health delivery records and the hospital’s position that some items were never received required an independent investigation.
“If indeed you said you sent these items to Moroto, and Moroto is saying they never received them, where are these items?” one committee member asked.
The MPs also questioned whether officials could have signed for equipment in Kampala without the items actually reaching Moroto.
The committee further raised concern over an incomplete structure that was reportedly supposed to house some of the equipment.
The UPDF Engineering Brigade had reportedly been tasked with constructing a shed for the equipment, but the structure had not been completed.
PAC directed that the issue of the incomplete building also be followed up alongside the missing or unverified equipment.
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