Dr Musenero: We shall not be Derailed on COVID-19 Vaccine Dev’t

The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Monica Musenero has presented her case before Parliament in regard to wild allegations that the Presidential Scientific Initiative on Epidemics (PRESIDE), an initiative set up by the president to fight epidemics reportedly misappropriated funds for COVID-19 vaccine development.

The allegations were first raised by Ntungamo Municipality MP Yona Musinguzi, claiming that Musenero who was the head of PRESIDE allegedly misused over Shs70bn in the past two financial years (FY 2019/2020 and FY 2020/2021) meant for the development of the vaccine. This prompted the Speaker Anita Among on 10th November 2021 to constitute a select committee to investigate the matter.

While presenting her statement on Tuesday on the floor of parliament in response to the committee report, Dr. Musenero welcomed the probe for open accountability, but vehemently denied being responsible for any funds that were misappropriated as alleged by the MP.

“At no time was I personally responsible for the management of any financial resources that was allocated to the work of the PRESIDE team as this was being coordinated by the Ministry and accounted for in accordance with the framework provided for in the Public Finance and Management Act,” Musenero said.

She expressed disappointment with the unsubstantiated allegations raised by MP Musinguzi saying the allegations are intended to break the scientists’ spirit in containing epidemics in the country.

“The Hon Member of Parliament of Ntungamo made a tirade of accusations on the use of resources appropriated to PRESIDE while I was heading the institution. His unsubstantiated accusations that prompted an Ad Hoc Committee of Parliament to be established were to say the least not in good faith and caused a lot of discomfort, frustration and annoyance to our dedicated scientists who like me have dedicated their lives to find cure and protection for our citizens and ourselves,” she said.

All her professional life, Dr Musenero has been at the helm of fighting pandemics and other contagious disease outbreaks in the country and it is no doubt that the President treats her with high regard. Musenero was the lead epidemiologist in the fight against Ebola, Cholera, Murburg, Hepatitis, yellow Fever among others. In 2014 as a team leader in Sierra Leone, she earned global recognition during the Ebola Pandemic that claimed 4000 lives in a country with a population of 1.2 million people.

“Never before has my integrity and commitment to duty ever been questioned or have reason to be questioned until now and sadly here in my own country, so it is very disheartening to have to read these accusations in the media, hear comments on TV and Radio and to have to explain to my family and friends on how unfair and untrue all these statements are,” Musenero said during the Tuesday plenary sitting.

She added, “But despite the pain, anguish and anger this has caused me and all the scientists working with me to build our capacity, I want to assure this august house that we shall not be derailed or distracted in our pursuit to develop our vaccine research and development capacity.”

Musenero in her statement urged Parliament to adopt the select committee recommendation to provide more funds to PRESIDE to enable the quick acquisition of research results and build specialised facilities that support research. The committee report recommended the preclinical and Clinical studies for the vaccine should be expeditiously concluded.

“This is important because it confirms the progress made by the scientists in the research through the vital exploratory stage and clears them to proceed to the next steps in the vaccine development stages journey listed. The committee report therefore confirms progress made by our Ugandan Scientist in this field of scientific research,” Musenero said. Parliament adopted the report of the select committee that among others recommended that PRESIDE is disbanded.