Uganda’s Members of Parliament (MPs) have expressed disappointment in Diana Atwine, the Permanent Secretary (PS) at Ministry of Health, noting that they expected more from her considering her past experience.
Kalungu West MP, Joseph Gonzaga Ssewungu told off Atwine that she has since taken a soft stance on health officials yet she used to be hard on them before taking on the PS role.
Atwine was appearing before lawmakers on the Parliamentary Health Committee to discuss the ministerial policy statement for the Ministry at Parliament on Tuesday.
“You were very strong when you weren’t having this office, and now you have a driver and everything, but these days we aren’t seeing you,” Ssewungu said.
He added: “You were doing a political role, hitting these people in the Ministry terribly bringing all evidence, what happened? I was expecting heaven coming on earth now that you are the accounting officer, but it is the opposite.”
Before assuming the PS role, Atwine was President Yoweri Museveni’s personal doctor and head of the State House based Health Monitoring Unit.
While heading the unit, the hardworking Atwine was so combative so much that she dealt with corrupt and incompetent officials within the health sector with an iron hand.
However, since she took over the PS role last year, she is no longer in limelight.
Atwine defended her disappearance from the limelight, noting that she has a busy schedule at the health Ministry.
“That isn’t right. The other time I was in the field, now I am in office streamlining Human Resource, discussing policy statements,” she said, adding that it is too early for Ugandans to start gauging her work.
“I am working with the system I found in the Ministry, it is very difficult for me to go on the street and tell people what I am doing. How can he expect heaven on earth within three months?
Unless I am God and say let there be, I am not God, I will have to work within the system, I will have to go slowly by slowly.”
The meeting between the ministry officials and the legislators was called off after the officials were faulted for being cagey on their expenditures.
The team was thrown out of Parliament and ordered to return with detailed documentations on how the money allocated to the institution was spent and how they intend to spend money in the coming budget.
