King Faisal Hospital Kigali out of debt

King Faisal Hospital-Kigali has successfully replenished the huge debts owed to various public institutions that include the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), the former Caisse Sociale du Rwanda (CSR), among others, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard on Tuesday.CSR has now been absorbed into the Rwanda Social Security Board. The acting CEO of the hospital, Dr. Alex Butera, disclosed this while responding to concerns highlighted in the report of the Auditor General for the year ended June 30, 2011. He said debts amounting to Rwf7 billion were paid last year alone.PAC Chairperson, MP Juvenal Nkusi, had earlier noted that the hospital’s debt woes had been highlighted in the two other AG reports outside the reporting period of July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. The two reports cover mini-budgets for the periods ended June 30, 2009 and June 30, 2010, respectively. Dr. Butera said: “I can report to date, that from December 2010, Rwanda Revenue Authority has been paid, regularly. “Even CSR was paid and what remains, and is being negotiated are just the interest rates that had accumulated. Other documents are in the Ministry of Finance, where they are examining the issue of 2005 and 2006 which had no supporting documents to facilitate payment. We want to pay but there are no documents,” Butera explained. “We realised that the debt was a hindrance that did not reflect good management, and does not show good direction, so we took measures to clear it. And we requested other relevant parties like Minecofin (Finance Ministry) to help us.” Detailing the repayment of the debts, the hospital’s head of financial operations, Jotham Tumwine, said that by June 30, 2011, they had cleared debts totalling Rwf4.2b “which had been reduced to Rwf1.8 billion by September this year. He told MPs that the hospital terminated the contracts of around 30 expatriates foreign personnel as a turn-around strategy.Tumwine said the hospital’s management took the bold decision to cut major costs thereby enabling the facility to save an average of Rwf100 million per month. “It’s just that we are not in the real business world but had that been the case, all indicators were that we were insolvent and unable to run. The situation now is that we are solvent. In terms of liquidity, at least we can pay suppliers, in two months, as compared to the past when we paid them in eight months,” he added. Butera explained that the fired expatriates were replaced by Rwandans who returned from abroad after their studies. “It was a strategic move. It was a chance and, had it not been planned, earlier, it would have been difficult. Things changed dynamically.” The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Uziel Ndagijimana, told PAC that the remaining debt had been budgeted for in the hospital’s current budget allocation.

National

King Faisal Hospital Kigali out of debt