Legislators on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have warned Jinja Hospital management against conniving with commercial banks to sign up staff for loans without their consent, in order to get commission saying this has impacted the livelihood of public servants.
The warning was issued by Asuman Basalirwa, Vice Chairperson PAC during a meeting with officials from Jinja Regional Referral Hospital. The Auditor General in the 2021/2022 report accused the hospital and the Ministry of Public Service of deducting Shs117,047,028 from 46 staff on behalf of financial institutions without letters of undertaking or consent as a prerequisite of approval of the deductions.
The audit report indicated that Shs1.2m was deducted from three employees past the end of the deduction date while Shs79.3m was deducted from 43 staff without the approval of the accounting officer. The auditor general also identified variances in monthly deduction amounts in active deductions reports.
Alfred Yayi, Director of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital informed the Committee that Management now ensures that staff processing loans sign two letters of undertaking one for the officer’s personal file and the other for the financial institution.
The Public Accounts Committee also queried irregularities in the Payroll management of the hospital which led to underpayment of salary, pension, and gratuity by Shs22.1m. There was also inaccurate computation of pension and gratuity which led to an overpayment of Shs15.9m to 6 pensioners.
Jinja Hospital management was also faulted over delayed access of the newly recruited staff on the payroll and delayed removal of retired, transferred, or dead staff from payroll which caused an overpayment of Shs3.7m to two staff.
