Govt rejects ‘new’ ambulances

The Land Rover ambulances parked at Cooper Motors in Nakawa soon after they arrived in Kampala in October last year.  

By STEPHEN OTAGE

Posted  Friday, January 4  2013 at  02:00

 

Govt rejects ‘new’ ambulances

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The Land Rover ambulances parked at Cooper Motors in Nakawa soon after they arrived in Kampala in October last year.  

By STEPHEN OTAGE

Posted  Friday, January 4  2013 at  02:00

he government has rejected 19 Land Rover ambulances that it had contracted Cooper Motors to supply on its behalf after it turned out they did not meet the agreed specifications.

According to sources, the ambulances that were supposed to be handed over to the Ministry of Health last month, were found to be reconditioned instead of factory-made brand new cars that had been ordered.

The ambulances had been procured under a $130 million World Bank loan for the Uganda Health Systems Strengthening Project.

In October 2012, after a sustained campaign about the state of ambulances across the country, this newspaper run a story about the arrival of the 19 Land Rover ambulances which were then parked at Cooper Motors in Nakawa.
Days later, a whistle-blower contacted this newspaper informing it about the defects on the ambulances blowing a lid on a racket within government procurement systems where procurement officials connive with suppliers to deliver used vehicles which seem brand new while actually they are old.
In this particular case, the ambulances were found to be seven years older than the ordered version.

The Daily Monitor has learnt that the supplied ambulances may have been fabricated from Kenya and shipped into Uganda by road instead of bringing them on carriers.

Efforts to get a comment from Cooper Motors were futile but the Health ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr Asuman Lukwago, confirmed that the ambulances had been rejected after they failed to meet the specifications that had been agreed.

“I think there have been suppliers used to supplying fake equipment and this is a warning to all the suppliers to the ministry. These people did not know that I would send a team to do pre-inspection because we now have what we call due diligence where we would rather buy expensive equipment, which will last longer, rather than buy fake equipment which will break down soon,” Dr Lukwago explained.

sotage@ug.nationmedia.com

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