PSST Ggoobi asks parliament to fund health sector instead of paying medical bills for gov’t officials
According to Ggoobi there are very few Ugandans who go abroad, calling upon legislators to think as leaders, and channel the money for leaders going abroad on treatment to strengthen health sector.
Secretary to Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi has asked Parliament to consider the proposal of funding Uganda’s health sector, instead of allocating funds for the medical treatment to top Government officials abroad.
According to Ggoobi, there are very few Ugandans who go abroad therefore there is need for legislators to channel the money for leaders going abroad on treatment to strengthen health sector.
“There are very few Ugandans who go abroad, maybe we need to think as leaders, going forward, these monies we allocate for going abroad for treatment why don’t we allocate it further to strengthen our own institutions? We need to have this conversation,” he said.
Ggoobi made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s Budget Committee, where Ibrahim Ssemujju (MP Kira Municipality) reminded him that Parliament did that by allocating money to Lubowa Specialized hospital.
“We gave that money to Lubowa, what happened?”Ssemujju asked.
Ggoobi however didn’t address Ssemujju’s query on Lubowa hospital but instead defended his proposal saying “I am putting a very clear statement, the money which goes abroad, why don’t we use it to improve our systems.”
He further revealed that he has seen many Ugandans who live longest and are treated here.
Ggoobi also stated that negotiations between government and World Bank Group are nearing completion, after the multi-national lender threatened to freeze funding to Uganda following the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
He added that Uganda is putting in place measures to ensure that the execution of project funded by the World Bank goes on without discriminating anyone.
“The NUSAF 4 project will only go to the World Bank Board after putting in place measures and testing their efficacy to assure the Bank that the law which Parliament passed, we shall be able to implement that project and others without discriminating anyone. That is what they required and we have been working with them and even this morning the reason why I came late, I was still talking to the World Bank team on the same measures, we are near the finishing line. So we shall be able to address all those,” said Ggoobi.
Ggoobi also said that government has embarked on improving the efficiency of management of projects in order to minimize delays in completion of public projects.
“Cabinet has approved a process where we are going to be on a regular basis going to by carrying out effective monitoring of projects especially those funded by money we borrow from abroad. And within this very budget, we have made a number of changes in the way we admit projects in the projects. We aren’t going to fund projects which aren’t ready, then we start, and half way we realize there are certain things we didn’t do,” he said.
Meanwhile within six months, the PSST noted that government will be able to see the construction of Kampala-Jinja expressway off the ground after several MPs complained about the several hours Ugandans are losing while using the current Jinja-Road.
“We are about to see the road off the ground, there was one major condition which the bidders had requested of the guarantee and we have been having the processes of preparing this, working with the African Development Bank and I am happy to tell you that we are almost at the tail end of it, once we get no objection, within six months, we shall be able to have closed this major infrastructure,” said Ggoobi.
