Government officials fight over new cancer machine deal

Kampala. The procurement of a new Cobalt 60 radiotherapy machine is entangled in fights after officials from the Ministry of Health hijacked the entire process from the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI).
New details have emerged indicating protracted fights involving government officials have fuelled delays in the replacement of the old machine that broke down in March. These fights have left more than 2,000 cancer patients in the country without treatment and they are likely to wait longer to receive their treatment as the procurement process continues to delay due to vested interests from various government officials.

According to a source, the process to replace the Cobalt 60 machine has been ongoing for many years but only gained momentum following the breakdown of the old machine installed in 1995.
UCI, the source familiar with the details of the procurement process says, had already identified potential suppliers from the Czech Republic and Canada before government officials showed interest to procure it.

Fights start
“The procurement of cancer machine was going on smoothly until when the entire process was hijacked by the Ministry of Health, which has now decided to buy the machine from China, thus complicating things,” the source said.
This newspaper understands that the Ministry of Health has now decided to buy the new machine from Nuclear Power Institute of China, a firm believed to be owned by the government of China.
The source also revealed how some officials had wanted the UCI director, Dr Jackson Orem, excluded from the expert process of purchasing the cancer machine expected to cost more than Euro500, 000 (about Shs1.8b).

The earlier team, which was meant to travel to China to conduct due diligence, was nullified after a strange name of a one Ms Deborah Mugambe Nagayi was smuggled onto the list.
The team was then supposed to be led by the former head of radiotherapy department at Mualgo hospital, Dr Joseph Kigula. Others on the team were Dr Aussi Kavuma of the UCI, Dr Ponsiano Baguma, head of radiotherapy at UCI, Dr Jackson Amone, the Health ministry’s assistant commissioner in charge of integrated curative services and Mr Natharius Nibashabira.
In an interview on Thursday, the Health minister-in-charge of General Duties, Ms Sarah Opendi, confirmed that the earlier team was disbanded after recommendations that Dr Kigula be replaced by someone who is still in service since he had retired.
“This list came from the other side (China) and we found a suspicious name of Ms Deborah Mugambe Nagayi, and no one of us knew how she had got on to the list,” Ms Opendi said.

Rival team speaks out
However, while explaining his side of the story, Dr Kigula said his team was constituted by the Health minister to do due diligence on the radiotherapy machine and he was also heading another committee to give expert advice on how radiotherapy services can be restored.
“Our work was to advise on how radiotherapy services can be restored and this involved knowing whether the older bunker could house the new machine and how to remove the radioactive source,” Dr Kigula said.
According to Dr Kigula, after his team had finished its work, he got information that government was going to acquire the machine from China and there was need for a high level government official to be included, who is a minister.
“I understand that there were funding challenges and this called for high level negotiations to see how the China government can support [Uganda] government to have the equipment,” he said.

On how Ms Mugambe had been sneaked into the list, Dr Kigula said the woman who appeared on the list was his wife, who was being “invited for visa purposes.”
“I was travelling with my wife to China and her name was meant for visa purposes. She had nothing to do with the team going to do due diligence,” Dr Kigula said, adding that the list approved by the Prime Minister did not include her name.
However, Ms Opendi said a new team led by the Health minister, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, including Dr Orem, will soon travel to China to do due diligence on Nuclear Power Institute of China and also have negotiations with the Chinese government.

Explaining the Chinese firm they zeroed on, Ms Opendi said they had earlier been challenged with the process of decommissioning the old machine currently in the old bunker. After finding out that it was true the Nuclear Power Institute of China had supplied the old machine, she said this informed the decision to have the same company supply the machine and also assist in removing the old machine.
“We had earlier lacked information until when we were informed that they had found out who the initial supplier was. Then we decided to form a committee to do due diligence,” she said.
“We had to be careful because this is an equipment that emits radioactive substances. We had to find out how the machine can be removed and on how it can be repatriated out of the country,” she explained.
She added that they are working with guidance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the entire process.

Seeking guidance
In a letter dated August 3, Dr Aceng wrote to the director of IAEA, Ms Nelly Enwerem-Brown, informing her that the Uganda government had been able to identify the supplier of the Cobalt 6O equipment, Nuclear Power Institute of China.
In the same letter, the minister acknowledged that a lot of time had been wasted due to a communication gap, “…this may have cost lives since the breakdown of the machine in March this year. It is therefore important to decommission the dysfunctional Cobalt Machine and install a new one as soon as possible,” her letter read in part.
However, a letter from IAEA indicates that the old machine should have been decommissioned between August 29 and September 1 but this has not yet happened.
Asked about the fights, Dr Aceng said in a text message on Thursday: “There are no fights. Only processes being followed. I will talk when I return on Saturday.”

Money disappears
A report of the study done by the IAEA indicated that the old bunker could house the new machine once it is renovated. However, Dr Orem recently told this newspaper that money to renovate the old bunker was lost after the contract was signed at the end of the last financial year, which has brought the entire process to a halt.
Mr Ronald Segawa Gaygenda, the under-secretary and also accounting officer at the Health ministry, said: “If someone was not covering up something, why would a contract be signed on June 26 yet these people know that unutilised funds are returned to the Consolidated Fund at the end of the financial year?”
He, however, said the procurement process to buy the machine has not yet started but what is being done currently is due diligence on the Chinese firm.

President’s take

Recently in a statement, President Museveni said Uganda would buy a new cancer radiotherapy equipment from Varian Medical Systems Global Government, a leading manufacturing company based in the United States. However, the statement was not specific on when the cancer equipment would be bought.

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