KAMPALA, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Several Ugandan non-governmental organizations (NGO) have called for the sacking of three health ministers as inquiry into the misuse of an international fund griped the eastern African country.

    Health Minister Jim Muhwezi and his deputies Mike Mukula and Alex Kamugisha were under fire in the on-going probe led by a judicial commission.

    "The three ministers should resign within two weeks. If they fail, the president should sack them," Esther Kisakye, the Director of the Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS, said Sunday along with half a dozen Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) dealing in HIV/AIDS in Uganda.

    An inquiry was set up after the Global Fund (GF) to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria temporarily suspended five grants worth 367-million U.S. dollars to Uganda last August, saying it had found serious mismanagement in the distribution of the money.

    But Muhwezi denied responsibility for the misuse of funds to fight AIDS and rejected a proposal to apologize to the public, which infuriated the CSOs.

    The commission has received allegations that GF expenses were inflated, false receipts were filed, and Fund money was loaned by the ministry to the state for political uses.

    The minister argued that the Fund's insistence on disbursing funds only through civil society and grassroots groups had led to the mismanagement and that the government had not been responsible.     

    ANGERED NGOs

    The inquiry continued among contradicting testimonies and confusion, but the wide-spreading suspicion and fury has prompted the CSOs to act.

    The CSOs said they could not wait for Justice James Ogoola's GF probe report because the testimonies before the commission so far were enough to implicate the three ministers.

    "Having keenly followed the mind-boggling revelations by the Justice Ogoola commission of inquiry into the mismanagement of the GF, we hereby call for the resignation of Jim Muhwezi, under whose leadership the mismanagement took place," they said in a statement.

    The civil society activists also threatened to organize countrywide demonstrations to express Ugandans' loss of confidence in the three ministers if the president refuses to sack them.

    The CSOs called for resignation or sack of the ministers after it was revealed that Muhwezi authorized to use 40 million Ugandan shillings (22,000 U.S. dollars) of the GF fund for medical treatment bills of former Minister Matthew Rukikaire.

    It further prompted the outcry when Muhwezi Wednesday responded to Justice Ogoola's proposal of an apology.

    "When there has been a call for patriotism and statesmanship I have been there ...where you were at that time but I was part of the peace and tranquility and rule of law which prevails today," he said at a hearing.

    The CSOs angered by his "arrogance" said "one wonders whether his contribution to the liberation struggle was meant to be remunerated using public funds!"

    Jesca Nkuuhe, the chairperson of HURINET, a women's lobby NGO said in addition to facing the law, property of all the culprits in the GF saga should be attached.

    "We call upon the government to not only take serious note of the findings and recommendations of the commission, but to ensure that the main culprits are brought to book through appropriate criminal and civil action and political sanction," they said in a statement.