Published on 23/07/2025
Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital is facing intense scrutiny from Members of Parliament following revelations of shoddy construction work on a new perimeter wall and gate, alongside persistent delays in essential medicine deliveries and the alarming expiry of vital drugs.
These issues, highlighted in the December 2024 Auditor General’s report, came to light during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting with hospital officials on July 22, 2025.
Lawmakers on the Public Accounts Committee were dismayed by the poor quality of the recently completed UGX1.63 billion perimeter wall and gate at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital. The Auditor General, Edward Akol, detailed numerous defects, including cracks, peeling paint, narrow gutters causing water stagnation, and a “dumpy” security house with cracked walls and ceilings.
Muwanga Kivumbi, MP for Butambala County and Chairperson of PAC, questioned the exorbitant cost, particularly for the main gate, which saw its price jump from UGX157.2 million to UGX196 million. “Knowing Uganda where we all live, would you build this structure for that amount of money? Let us be realistic. Have you seen that gate? Can that gate in all intent and purpose cost UGX196 Million?” Kivumbi pressed, expressing embarrassment that a newly completed project already exhibited such significant flaws.
Silas Aogon, MP for Kumi Municipality, pointed to suspicious contract price variations across all project items, suggesting a deliberate attempt to exhaust remaining funds. The security house’s cost increased from UGX35.3 million to UGX39 million, and the boundary wall from UGX1.09 billion to UGX1.22 billion.
Aogon demanded the summoning of the Kabarole district engineer, stating, “Normally, if there is a problem with maybe designs and you need to have a variation, it is maybe on one item, but on all items, I think they realised that there was a balance of money, then they said, what we do, let us vary these figures upwards.” He criticized the district engineer for approving payment for such substandard work.
Dr. Alex Adaku, the interdicted former Director of Fort Portal Hospital, clarified that the allocated amount covered two gates, not one, and claimed the cracks on the 1.5km wall fence were rectified within the contract’s defect liability period. However, Aogon dismissed this explanation, labeling the project a “conspiracy” indicative of deeper problems in contract execution.
When pressed on technical details like the gate’s square footage, both Dr. Adaku and the Hospital Planner deemed the questions too technical, further frustrating the MPs. Kivumbi ultimately asked the hospital management for their motivation behind such shoddy work.
Critical Medicine Shortages and Expired Drugs Raise Alarm
In addition to the construction woes, Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital also faced a grilling over significant delays in receiving essential medical supplies from the National Medical Stores (NMS), leading to critical drug shortages and the expiry of medicines.
Auditor General Edward Akol’s report revealed delivery delays ranging from 3 to 67 days from the time orders were placed. Aogon calculated that the hospital operated for nearly a month (29.5 days) without essential medicines, with May 2024 experiencing the highest stockouts (67 days). Kivumbi expressed outrage, emphasizing the hospital’s role in serving ten local governments: “It takes two months for a referral regional to get essential drugs. For me, this is a disaster.”
Dr. Archbald Newton Bahizi, the current Director of Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital, acknowledged the delays, attributing them to NMS’s failure to adhere to predetermined delivery deadlines, despite the hospital submitting annual procurement plans and making bi-monthly orders. He also noted that funding for medicines is “generally inadequate” to meet the increasing demand.
MPs also probed the issue of expired drugs found in the hospital’s stores. Asuman Basalirwa, MP for Bugiri Municipality, questioned whether these expired drugs were part of unordered consignments, a recurring issue with NMS in the past.
Dr. Bahizi explained that the hospital regularly informs NMS about expired medicines for collection when new deliveries are made. However, it was revealed that among the expired drugs were anaesthetic drugs used in theatre and HIV/AIDS medication. Aogon sarcastically questioned if this implied a containment of the HIV epidemic in the Rwenzori region, suggesting the drugs expired due to lack of patients.
Kivumbi demanded a clearer explanation for the expiries, questioning if NMS was oversupplying, and tasked the Auditor General’s office to quantify the financial cost of the expired drugs in future audits. He cited the Ministry of Health’s manual, which mandates recording expired medicines’ prices and calculating their total value quarterly, as well as designating a separate, clearly labeled area for damaged and expired goods.
The Auditor General underscored that drug expiry leads to financial loss and compromises public health services, urging the hospital to continuously engage NMS for timely disposal of expired drugs.
The twin issues of construction irregularities and medicine management failures paint a concerning picture of oversight and accountability at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital. Will the summoning of the district engineer and further investigations by PAC lead to concrete actions and improved service delivery for the thousands of patients relying on this crucial facility?
