{UAH} Radiotherapy chief faults Mulago bosses on cancer machine
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Radiotherapy chief faults Mulago bosses on cancer machine
Written by URN
Dr Joseph Kigula Former head of the radiotherapy department at Mulago hospital, Dr Joseph Kigula says he decided to go into early retirement after management frustrated his efforts to secure a new radiotherapy machine for the hospital.
Kigula, who was posted to Mulago in 1992, took a decision to go into early retirement in 2014. About three weeks ago, the radiotherapy machine at Mulago broke down, now Dr Kigula says as early as 2007, the hospital management turned down two opportunities to secure radiotherapy machines.
According to Kigula, between 2007 and 2011, the radiotherapy department received $100m from government to purchase a new machine and build a bunker.
He however, says before they could sign the contract to procure a new radiotherapy machine and build a bunker, the then executive director of Mulago, Dr Edward Ddumba was replaced with Dr Byarugaba Baterana. Kigula says that a day to the signing of the contract with Panacia construction company, an Indian firm, Byarugaba changed his mind citing a flawed procurement process.
According to Kigula, he didn't pursue the matter further because Byarugaba was his boss.
"Up to the time of preparing the contract everything was in order, then just about when the contract was getting ready, there was a change of administration and Dr Byarugaba said am not happy with this contract", Kigula said.
"You know there is a whole department of procurement and for us we were technical experts giving specs [specifications] and so on, so we were taken surprise but certainly it was not our role to pass judgement… so we said well, we are going to repeat the process. We knew this was going to affect the patients being treated because already the [radiotherapy machine] source was weak, it was ready for a change. It should have been changed in 2007 now we were [in] 2011 so we are getting it with a second half life of the source - really quite a weak source", he added.
Kigula says he always was feeling embarrassed whenever asked about the radiotherapy machine by his colleagues from other countries.
"Internationally, you would go into a meeting and people would say, Dr Kigula from Uganda are you still using that machine? It came to a point and I would just say no comment because I knew we are using it and If I say we are using it, I will open up a lot of questions about what exactly we were doing. I was completely frustrated by what we were doing".
Kigula claims that Mulago got another offer of $200,000 in 2011 from Kuk Jordan, a Canadian philanthropist to build the bunker but it was turned down by management.
"In fact, at about the same time which was even more surprising, we had a Canadian friend who was willing to raise money to build a bunker at about $200,000 - free of charge. It would be a donation to government but because the money was just enough for just one bunker and the plan this time was to build two bunkers in phase I, the management said 'no', we need two bunkers, we can not do this one bunker and so the offer went away", he said.
Jordan facilitates cancer patients to travel from their villages to Mulago for radiotherapy treatment. We could not independently verify the offer by the Canadian philanthropist.
Byarugaba confirmed that he canceled the contract to procure a new radiotherapy machine because of procurement flaws.
"Indeed it was true that there a process of building a bunker and at the same time procuring a 60-cobalt machine which was supposed to be in that bunker. And that process was together, the contract was one. However, when as I have told you at the end of April when I came in, I noted the following flaws in the procurement process.
During the bid opening, the bid opening took place on January 24, 2011 where I was not, there was no member of the contracts committee that was present to witness the exercise. At the same time during the evaluation process of the construction of the bunker, the technical representative from Ministry of Works who was then Ms Flavia Butto did not attend. So there was no representative from Ministry of Works", Byarugaba said.
He however, said he wasn't aware of the $200,000 offer from Jordan to construct a bunker at Mulago.
"To the best of my knowledge, belief and confidence, there are people over there who just want to talk and talk whatever comes in their mouths. Such a thing can not happen, rejecting the bidding of the bunker would tantamount to what I call professional sacrilege which I can not commit. We have been accepting people to give us mattresses of very little money and other small items, how would we…reject the bidding of the bunker. It has never happened and can never happen. Let him challenge me, let him come in public and say ' I brought the money here, I brought the bidders here and you rejected them"
Thousands of cancer patients in need of radiotherapy treatment are currently stuck following the break the radiotherapy machine at the Uganda Cancer Institute early this month. According to the management, it will take about two years to construct the bunker and install a new machine.
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