National Medical Stores (NMS) has this Tuesday, January 2022, promised to furnish Parliament Health Committee with a comprehensive report entailing funds that have so far been spent on procuring Covid-19 vaccines.
NMS’ Stores and Operations Officer Paul Okware told legislators on the Health Committee that NMS is an accountable institution and that all the required information will be provided in due course.
“We will make sure that to this very report, we shall add an annex on details of monies that were made available for the vaccine and the quantities that have been received so far including those funded by Government and donors,” said Okware.
Okware’s response followed questions raised by MPs including Dr. Lulume Bayiga (Buikwe South) bordering on how an allocation of Shs 80 billion was utilized.
This money was released during the 2020/21 Financial Year for purposes of vaccine procurement and handling vaccine procurement.
Whereas Okware had presented a budget summary report, the Committee Chairperson Dr. Charles Ayume advised NMS to furnish the committee with a summary of how these Covid-19 funds were used to avoid any contention.
NMS is a government body mandated with the procurement, storage and distribution of essential medicines and vaccines to mainly health facilities.
Mr Okware told the media that NMS received Shs 80 billion in the 2020/21 FY and the money went towards purchasing Johnson and Johnson jabs.
According to the presentation that Minister of Health (MOH) Dr. Ruth Aceng made on Thursday November 4, 2021; Government and partners in the last Financial Year provided funds amounting to Shs 619.5 billion.
The Government and partners have already provided part of the funds amounting to Shs 619.5 billion, as seen in the breakdown below:
A case in point, Aceng revealed that they received Shs 12.8 billion from Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) for vaccine deployment and supplementary funds worth Shs 18.5 billion to procure vaccines.
“Contingency funding from Government of Uganda in Financial Year 2020/2021 for vaccine procurement and operational costs is Shs 30 billion. Allocation to National Medical Stores by Government of Uganda in Financial Year 2020/2021 for vaccine procurement and handling is Shs 80 billion,” she said.
“Re-allocation from the item of vaccine co-financing for the traditional vaccines for purchase of syringes for COVID-19 vaccination by Government of Uganda in Financial Year 2020/2021 is Shs 3.9 billion; and the total cost of vaccines, that is the 18 million doses expected.
NMS has been at the forefront of distributing COVID-19 vaccines across Uganda, supporting efforts to combat the deadly virus.