On June 5, 2020 Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary (PS) Diana Atwine published a press statement titled, “Ministry of Health clarification on cost of Covid-19 testing”. That clarification to the country followed criticism from Kampala central Member of Parliament Muhammad Nsereko who took to social media to lament about the US$ 65 cost that government said it was incurring per test on Ugandans. Mr. Nsereko did make some sweeping allegations, prompting Dr. Atwine to respond in a detailed statement. That explanation however, did not satisfy President Yoweri Museveni whose office instructed the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) to investigate and establish the true cost of Covid-19 testing.
A joint investigation by the East African Center for Investigative Reporting’s (EACIR) online publication Vox Populi and Sunday Monitor can reveal that in June 2020, Lt. Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Senior Presidential Adviser for Special Operations directed ISO to ascertain the true cost of Covid-19 testing.
In an intelligence briefing sent to Kainerugaba that Vox Populi has seen, the country’s lead spy agency found evidence that, “The PS Ministry of Health in her rebuttal to claims made by the Member of Parliament (Nsereko) makes assertions that are mixed, factual and non-factual. The PS categorizes the cost of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test kits as per manufacturer’s Cost of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and Sample collection, transportation medium and triple packaging.”
According to the USA based National Human Genome Research Institute, sometimes called “molecular photocopying,” the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is, “a fast and inexpensive technique used to “amplify” or copy small segments of DNA. Because significant amounts of a sample of DNA are necessary for molecular and genetic analyses, studies of isolated pieces of DNA are nearly impossible without PCR amplification.” PCR is often touted as one of the most important scientific advances in molecular biology as it revolutionized the study of DNA, “to such an extent that its creator, Kary B. Mullis, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993.”
In her media statement, Dr. Atwine gave the following costs for PCR Test Kits that the government of Uganda and development partners had procured or were in the process of procuring; Altona PCR kits each procured at USD 25, GeneXpert kits each procured at USD 19.8, ABI kits each procured at USD 17.2, COBAS 6800/8800 Kits each procured at USD 18.9.
The intelligence briefing that Vox Populi has seen indicates that Lt. Gen. Muhoozi was briefed that, “The GeneXpert kits procured at USD 19.8 per kit tally with the price in a quotation for the same that puts the Price at USD 198 for a pack of 100 Tests Kits. The other prices for PCR Test Kits mentioned by the PS Ministry Health are in the range of the prices for the available PCR test kits on the market worldwide.”
The preliminary investigation also found that the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which according to the PS Ministry of Health cost USD 2.25 per test is, “a justifiable cost.” Atwine detailed the costing as follows: Masks N95-USD 0.7, Face Shields-USD 0.5, Safety Eye Goggles USD-1.5, latex gloves USD 0.2, Aprons plastic re-usable-USD 3 and Gowns-Surgical USD 1.5.
However, the PS Health allocated, “the highest cost centre for testing Covid-19 to Sample collection, transportation medium and triple packaging at USD 36 per test per person.” When investigators independently verified this cost, doing so by obtaining quotations from the same supplier and mining publicly available data online, they found that, “The Price quotation secured from the Manufacturer of GeneXpert Test kits for Nasopharyngeal swab collection kit of 100 units costs USD 231 which translates into USD 2.31 per test per person.”
Investigators for instance secured a price quotation from Ahmad Sayed, the Regional Sales Manager of Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), a copy of which this media house has seen, that indicates, “BGI PCR test kits+RNA Extraction kit+Viral transport Medium and Swab which is a total solution package for testing Covid 19 at USD 2,200 for a pack of 100 units translating into USD 22 per test for purchase of 10,000 kits while the offer for purchases of 20,000 units and above the price is reduced to USD 2,000 for a pack of 100 translating into USD 20 per test per person.”
In fact, in publicly available information that was used to tie the loose ends of the investigation, the operatives discovered that, “the prices of sample collection and transportation medium range between USD 0.3 to USD 3 per Kit.”
Spotting the inflation
On the basis of these findings, it was observed that, “The sample collection, transportation medium and triple packaging which the PS Health puts at USD 36 per person per test is inflated by USD 33.69 per test per person compared to the price offered by GeneXpert Infinity systems.”
Additionally, “The price of PCR tests including sample collection, transportation medium and packaging that the PS health assigns a cost of USD 65 per person per test is inflated by USD 45 or USD 43 per person per test when compared to the quotation by Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI).”
As of June, “Loss of public funds to a tune of USD 4,232,912 has been occasioned on the procurement of highly inflated sample collection and transportation kits. The 125,643 Tests COVID- 19 tests carried out as on 5th June 2020 at USD 65 per test cost the country USD 8,166,795 could have been carried out at a cost of USD 2,512,860 if the country had procured the complete COVID -19 complete solution from BGI.” Since the Ministry of Health has maintained this disputed cost of testing, it was not possible to independently verify how much this loss amounts to now, especially after the period of June. As the graphics and data section of our website shows, Uganda has carried out over 417,897 tests for the coronavirus. If ISO’s investigation and claim of inflated costing tests is anything to go by, this implies that the Ugandan taxpayer and donors have bled colossal sums of money in inflated costs. Vox Populi however established that Uganda’s cost of testing for Covid-19 remains comparably higher to countries like Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda and Tanzania whose costs were compared.
Even more, the president’s office was briefed that whereas it is public knowledge that the government of Uganda received donations for COVID-19 testing from World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Jack Ma (Chinese Philanthropist), “the country has not been informed in certain terms the quantities and the exact materials donated. There is strong belief in the Health Sector that the tests carried out so far have been using donated Kits and not procured Kits.”
Accordingly, investigations have been launched to establish whether indeed the ministry actually made all the Covid-19 imports and Uganda Revenue Authority, which has access to such information, will be furnishing the president’s office with the relevant data while the finance ministry is expected to advise on full details of the payments for COVID-19 test kits and swabs so far made by the ministry.
This story was jointly investigated with the Daily Monitor as part of the East African Center for Investigative Reporting’s Collaborative Investigative Journalism Initiative.
thanx for da gud work …..daily monitor and voxpopuli…..should we asume dat uganda z mch richer……or our local people are paying tax buh rather used irrelavantly…….respest to voxpopuli