Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe (pictured), his Principal Secretary Susan Mochache, and a member of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Board pressurized the medical supplies agency to award multi-billion shilling tenders for COVID-19 related items, Senators have been told.
The Health officials were accused of having pressed the medical agency officials to procure with disregard of procurement laws and inflated prices of the COVID-19 related commodities.
The revelations came in the backdrop of a joint Senate committee grilling of the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) officials on the alleged misappropriation of COVID-19 funds.
Suspended Kemsa Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Jonah Manjari told the joint Senate Health and Ad Hoc Committee on COVID-19 that he was receiving numerous calls, short text messages and emails from the trio to award tenders for the provision of various items.
In a heated session on Friday, the suspended Kemsa official was at pains to convince the lawmakers why he went on spending spree and committed more than Sh7.6billion worth of procurement without clearance from the board.
Manjari told the committee co-chaired by Trans Nzoia Senator Michael Mbito (Health) and his nominated counterpart Sylvia Kasanga (Ad Hoc on COVID-19) that they were responding to an emergency pandemic and that there are certain items that had to be procured to save lives.“We got various requests from the Health CS, the PS Susan Mochache, and a member of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Board. The requests were in the form of phone calls, text messages, and even emails,” said the embattled Manjari.
According to Manjari, at some point, the Emergency Respond team visited Kemsa and asked for specific items that they didn’t have at the time and asked them to tender.
“We were responding to an urgent need and there was a lot of pressure from all over to procure COVID-19 related items,” said Manjari.
But Senators Ledama Ole Kina (Narok), Fred Outa (Kisumu), Okong’o Mogeni (Nyamira) and Ibrahim Ali (Wajir) hard-pressed the Manjari to explain why he ignored the opinion of the Procurement Director to stop tendering since the agency had long passed the budget plan.“You ignored the opinion of the director of procurement. The board had done a direct procurement of Sh4billion and in May he again wrote to you not to do a direct procurement and in June you exceeded the budget to the tune of Sh7.6billion. Why did you ignore the professional advice of your officer?” posed Ledama.
But Manjari explained that at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, there was no budget, adding that at the time there was only one supplier of the N95 Masks which was being supplied for the Multi-Drug-Resistant (MDR) patients.
Manjari further disclosed there very few companies with the capacity to supply the N95 masks which were being used by the health workers to respond to the pandemic, adding they agreed with the suppliers to ensure that the masks were in the country by July.
“Before COVID-19, the N95 masks were only being used by the health workers attending to MDR patients. We had very few suppliers with the capacity to supply the N95masks but we entered into an agreement that they supply them in July. At the time, their prices had increased tremendously,” Manjari told a charged committee.
Nominated Senator Abshiro Halakhe asked Manjari to be bold and courageous enough to tell the country the alleged misappropriation at the medical supplies agency.
In his response, Kemsa Board Chair Kembi Gitura clarified to the joint committee that Ms. Mochache had written to the agency directing them to procure the COVID-19 related items.
Gitura said that the procurement for the pandemic materials was done on an emergency basis with guidelines from the Public Procurement Review Board and the parent Ministry of Health.“We did not advertise because this was not going to be a normal advertisement. We were requested by MOH to procure the items. The letter came from the Ministry,” said Gitura.
He explained that although the agency had the duty to procure the COVID-19 related items to respond to the pandemic that was ravaging the globe, they were still procuring for the Health Products and Technologies (HPTs).“We started emergency procurement and it was not clear at the time. We were still procuring for the HPTs. We received a letter from the Ministry to procure items worth Sh758million with a list attached to it,” Gitura held.
Manjari at the same time told the lawmakers that at the time the Health PS Susan Mochache was directing them to procure the COVID-19 related items, they had already had a list of companies that had the capacity to supply the items.
Both the Senate Health and Ad hoc committee will invite the Ministry of Health officials to appear before it and respond to the allegations leveled against them even as Kemsa was told to furnish the committee with a list of companies that were awarded tenders.