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The latest Auditor General’s report as of December 2025 has torn the lid off troubling financial and operational gaps at the National Drug Authority (NDA), raising uncomfortable questions about whether the regulator charged with protecting Ugandans from dangerous medicines is itself suffering from regulatory paralysis.
At the heart of the bombshell findings are unclaimed deposits totaling a staggering UGX 4.532 billion sitting idle on NDA’s Stanbic accounts. According to the Auditor General, the deposits were not matched to respective clients due to lack of client identification numbers and delays in undertaking monthly reconciliations. The implication is chilling: weak payables and cash management controls inside an authority entrusted with safeguarding public health.
“This is basic accounting hygiene,” said one public finance analyst who reviewed the report. “When you have billions sitting unmatched, it signals either sloppiness or systemic control weaknesses. At a regulatory body of this magnitude, that is unacceptable.”
But that is only the beginning.
Receivables amounting to UGX 66.617 billion were still outstanding as of 30th June 2025. Even more alarming, 94.9% of these receivables have been outstanding for more than two years. Up to 94% of this debt relates to the Ministry of Health itself, increasing the risk of loss through bad debts and squeezing the Authority’s cash inflows.
In simple terms, the drug regulator is owed billions, most of it aged, while its own cash position suffers.
Meanwhile, payables worth UGX 69.8 million have remained unsettled for over two years, exposing the Authority to reputational and litigation risks. “When you delay settling obligations for years, you erode credibility,” a governance expert noted. “Regulators must inspire confidence. This instead breeds distrust.”
The Auditor General also flagged that planned procurements worth UGX 13.742 billion were not implemented. Functions such as marketing authorization, inspections, and licensing experienced delays. Regional offices underperformed significantly in inspections, sensitization, and compliance visits, weakening regulatory enforcement and public health protection.
In a sector where delays can mean substandard or counterfeit drugs slipping through cracks, such underperformance is not a minor administrative hiccup, opines a pharmaceutical industry watcher.
The Strategic Plan itself was underfunded by 18.28%, limiting implementation. Key strategic objectives — regulatory maturity, service delivery, stakeholder satisfaction — were not fully achieved.
Revenue collection fell short as well. The Authority collected UGX 83.429 billion, just 87% of its UGX 95.544 billion target, leaving a UGX 12.115 billion shortfall largely attributed to reduced internally generated revenue and donor funding cuts.
Even more puzzling, only 75.54% of the available UGX 108.109 billion budget was utilized. Billions available, yet not spent, while critical functions underperformed.
And then there is the NDA Tower. Eight of the twelve floors were not optimally utilized. The Authority’s internal audit department did not address utilization of non-current assets in quarterly audits.
An entire regulator, with idle floors, idle billions, idle decisions?
“Which brings us to the uncomfortable political question many in the pharmaceutical sector are already whispering: Is it time to crack the whip at the top?”
The Executive Secretary of the Authority, David Nahamya, has been at the helm since 2020. Many players in the drugs sector say that ever since he came in, things have gone wrong at NDA — but that, as insiders say, is a story for another day.
The comparisons to his predecessor are growing louder.
In a very short period, Donna Asiimwe Kusemererwa revolutionized drug regulation in Uganda. She found what insiders describe as a dying organization and turned it around fast, setting NDA on a path to becoming the best medicine regulatory agency in East Africa. She was reportedly tough on industry players used to cutting corners, pushed for automation, championed infrastructure development, and tolerated no corruption.
“Up to today, even those she was tough on begrudgingly respect her,” said a long-serving pharmaceutical executive. “They knew she was about the law, public safety and professionalism. If there are true heroes of Uganda’s healthcare system, she’s one of them.”
Her removal came after a legal technicality. The NDA had advertised the top job as “Executive Director,” yet the NDA Act provided for “Secretary to the Authority.” A staff member sued. The High Court agreed, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision, and she had to leave office. Insiders still describe it as the work of “mafia through court processes.”
“The court robbed the country of an excellent public administrator at the peak of her powers,” another sector player lamented. “Some of those currently in charge have a disease called decision inertia[sic]. They can’t make a decision to save their lives. The only time things move fast is if there’s political interest. For them it’s about keeping jobs by pleasing power. Regulation and timely service delivery come later.”
Some cattle keepers still remember the aftermath. Soon after her exit, complaints surfaced about ineffective drugs on the market and dying animals. Eventually, a new authority was created to regulate animal medicines.
Now, with billions unclaimed, billions owed, underperformance in inspections, idle floors in the NDA Tower, and a strategic plan limping along underfunded, the question hangs heavily in the air.
Is this sloppiness? Is it unseriousness? Or is it outright negligence?
And more importantly — who takes responsibility?
As one governance analyst bluntly put it: “When a regulator meant to protect public health shows systemic financial and operational weaknesses, it’s not just an accounting issue. It’s a national safety issue.”
The Auditor General has spoken.
Will the whip crack at the top — or will the billions and the questions remain suspended in regulatory limbo?
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