Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary, Dr Diana Atwine.
The State House Anti-corruption Unit is investigating allegations of bribery in the deployment of medical interns.
Seven medical interns were scheduled for interrogation on Thursday in the continuing investigation into concerns of corruption and bribery within medical internship deployment by the Ministry of Health.
The invited interns are currently deployed at Mulago, Arua, St. Kizito Hospital Matany, Fort Portal, Nsambya, Mbale, and Kiruddu hospitals and according to a letter written by Dr. Joseph Okware on behalf of Dr Henry Mwebesa, the Director General of Health Services, the unit had summoned them to understand circumstances surrounding deployment with allegations of extortion and unethical behavior by some officials in the Ministry of Health.
A total of thirty-nine medical interns have been summoned for the hearings scheduled to end on January 23 and according to Dr Bill Adrati, the President of the Federation of Uganda Medical Interns, this investigation comes in handy with concerns of influence peddling and corruption heightening.
He says in the most recent deployment which came after a protracted rift and a series of protests due to delays, many of those that were at the front line of this push were punished by being deployed in hard-to-reach areas.
Adrati, who is currently interning at Anaka Hospital in Nwoya district says all members of his taskforce were taken out of town apart from just two. For him, while the ministry has always maintained that the process is random, it needs to be clear, what exact criteria are used.
Dr Herbert Luswata, the President of the Uganda Medical Association said that when they received information that medical interns had been summoned, they got in touch with officials in the Ministry of Health to seek clarity on whether the invited interns were suspects in the said extortion or not.
However, when our reporter contacted the Ministry of Health, Emmanuel Ainebyoona, the Senior Public Relations officer said he would first make consultations before giving the ministry’s position.
Meanwhile, Adrati says he had also earlier gotten in touch with the Ministry to inquire about the facilitation of medical interns before the anti-corruption unit but couldn’t get any responses from the top officials including the Director General of Health Services and Permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwine.
