Uganda Blood Transfusion Services (UBTS) is collecting blood and handing it to hospitals around the country without a license from the global body, a development that puts in question the quality of blood in the country, the December 2019 report by the Office of the Auditor General has revealed.
“UBTS operates without accreditation by the African Society for Blood Transfusion (AFSBT). This means that its (UBTS) operations are only limited to local standards,” says the report that was recently presented to Parliament and is awaiting scrutiny by Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The audit team also revealed that collected blood is transported together with staff using non refrigerated vehicles as required per international standards.
The financial statement of UBTS indicated that Parliament appropriated a total of Shs19.18bn to UBTS.
However, the entity only received Shs19.17bn resulting in a budget shortfall of Shs9.6m.
Further, out of the warranted amount of Shs19.17bn, Shs19.13bn was spent by the entity resulting in unspent balance of Shs41.13m representing an absorption level of 99.79%.
The Auditors also unearthed what they termed as significant inconsistencies between the figures in the vote performance report and the statement of financial performance as of 30th June, 2019.
According to the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, Uganda’s healthcare system, uses about 1,500 units of bloods daily, but UBTS is able to collect on average 1,250 units daily(83% of the required blood) meaning that there is a 17% deficit every day.
