The Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi has warned Government agencies and school heads about the various poisonous substances in food items on the market, urging all responsible authorities to only purchase food items from suppliers certified by Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).
Ggoobi raised the concern during the 2nd Budget Call Circular that was recently issued ahead of the finalization of the 2024/25 national budget.
“Several cases of food poisoning have been reported in various institutions, especially of learning due to the effects of aflatoxins, adulterated quality standards and related post-harvest handling challenges of grain and grain products such as bread, maize flour among others. All Government institutions (Local Governments, Uganda Police Force, Uganda Prisons Services among others that procure grain and grain products are therefore advised to ensure their suppliers are verified and issued certificates of compliance by Uganda National Bureau of Standards,” Ggoobi stated.
The Secretary to Treasury further added that the Ministry of Finance will soon send out a separate Circular with guidelines, requiring all Accounting Officers of Government to procure certified grain and grain products to guarantee quality, health and safety of all consumers in the country and for exports.
“UNBS and the Ministry of Education and Sports should ensure that private and public schools procure UNBS certified products,” he said.
The Ministry of Finance’s department came at the time in October 2023; the Ministry of Health raised alarm on impact of consuming food contaminated with aflatoxin, saying this has seen health facilities battling with high cases of liver cancer in Uganda.
Margaret Muhanga, Minister of State for Primary Health Care told Parliament that on the average, Uganda Cancer Institute receives between 170-200 liver cancer patient’s cases per year but between 48 to 56 of these are a result of aflatoxin exposure, and gov’ernment spends Shs3.12 billion to treat 200 liver cancer patients, with each patient’s treatment costing an average of Shs15.6 million annually.
Minister Muhanga noted that the majority of these cases present with unrespectable disease (stage 3 & 4) and are treated with a combination treatment and the treatments of choice are Lenvatinib and bevacizumab, yet the average cost of bevacizumab is Shs700,000 per month and the cost of bevacizumab is Shs2,200,000 per month.
According to the Ministry of Health, the patients are treated per month resulting in a total cost of Shs15.6 million, thus requiring Shs3.12 billion to treat 200 liver cancer patients, but this doesn’t include other costs such as investigations and supportive treatment.
The Ministry of Finance has also barred Ministries, Agencies and Departments of government from undertaking any new projects of constructing office premises, in order to use the available resources for service delivery.
Ggoobi wrote, “It has been observed that Ministries, Departments are planning and budgeting for construction of institutional headquarter offices under the retooling projects, and without seeking clearance from Office of the President and this Ministry. In addition, due to the need to focus resources on the priorities, no new construction of office accommodation will be allowed next financial year.”
