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Cabinet Dismisses Health Department that Caused Losses to Gov’t

by Daniel Sabiiti
10:46 am

Six health ministry accused of fraudulent tenders in court last month. They include Theogene Ntamuhungu

A cabinet meeting chaired by President Paul Kagame dissolved a department within Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) after causing government loses worth billions in years.

“Cabinet meeting removed from duties all the staff from the Medical Technology and Infrastructure Division due to inefficiencies affecting the performance of the health sector,” read the cabinet resolution on August 8, 2018.

The sacked staff include the head of the department Théogène Ntamuhungu, but t cabinet did not mention other staff under this division.

Ntamuhungu is among six RBC staff in court on five charges of fraudulent tendering processes.

They are accused of ordering faulty medical equipment which caused government a loss of over Rwf5.8 billion in the last five years.

Ntamuhungu and all his co-accused are charged with the crime of involvement in illegal tender procedures, but five are separately accused of amassing undeclared wealth, and five of them on forged documents.

Four of the accused were alleged of conducting operations contrary to work obligations.

In one of the cases that was mentioned during a pre detention court hearing, prosecution revealed that the suspects procured faulty surgical lights for Byumba hospital.

As if this was not enough, the prosecution said, the accused offered a tender to the costly bid for five years.

The cabinet also fired Hamad Baligira, who was Director of Human Resource and Administration Unit at the Ministry of Health, following staff for gross misconduct.

In a presidential order, ten officers were dismissed from Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and a ministerial order dismissed 70 noncommissioned officers and enlisted personnel from the same force.

On the other hand, the presidential order promoted 663 officers in RDF was also announced.