The committee that was established to investigate the utilization of funds meant to facilitate the COVID-19 vaccine development by the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Dr. Monica Musenero has pinned the Minister saying that the process was marred with irregularities.
Xavier Kyooma, the Chairperson of the Committee on Science, technology, and Innovation presented the findings to the House on Wednesday during the plenary sitting.
The committee was set up in November 2021 to investigate allegations of irregularities regarding the utilization of funds for Covid-19 vaccine development by the Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics
The investigation followed a report by Ntungamo Municipality MP Yona Musinguzi who noted that following the Covid-19 pandemic, a group of scientists 2020 convinced the President that they could produce a vaccine for COVID-19 and they went ahead and drew big sums of money. He said that in 2020, they drew USD 20 billion
The Auditor-General, John Muwanga noted that 491 million shillings were not accounted for. Further, there were no clearance certificates issued for funding prior to the completion of each stage, Minister Kyooma said.
Kyooma on funds…..
Dr. Monica Muserero said that she had not had the privilege of reading the report earlier and appealed for more time to study the report and respond to parliament. Dr.Musenero on report…..
The Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa deferred debate on the report to Tuesday next week. Hon.Tayebwa speaking …..
He called for calmness among legislators. END.
