Sep 22, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) has been left with over 6 billion debt after it procured more than necessary COVID-19 equipment than what was authorized.
The national health assembly committee visited the warehouse today to assess the covid protective equipment that were lying there.
According to chairperson of the parliamentary health committee, Hon. Sabina Chege, KEMSA brought all this problem to itsself.
“But KEMSA out of their own wisdom, which we are rying to figure out at what point they arrived at the figure of buying 7.1 billion worth of goods, decided to buy outside what the ministry has arrived.” Said Sabina chege, chairperson of the parliamentary health committee.
Hon Sabina Chege said that the institution bought these items in anticipation of the numbers of covid 19 cases the world was reporting.
She said that KEMSA hoped that it would be able to pay for the items after it sold them.
The entity had procured equipment in two batches.
The first one was with the agreement with the ministry of health. These were budgeted for and have no dispute and were paid for by the ministry and some by the donation from the world bank.
The second batch was procured by the institution through reverse procurement. Through this, KEMSA was able to procure equipment worth 7.1 billion Shillings.
These items were paid for by the institution’s money and some money was not paid but KEMSA wrote a commitment letter to the suppliers and had goods delivered.
Now, there are goods worth over 6 billion shillings lying at the warehouse.
According to Hon. Chege, reverse procurement/auction is useful for B-B procurement where the role of buyer and seller is reversed and sellers keep reducing their bids to compete with other sellers.
Speaking while at the warehouse, the parliamentary health committee chairperson said that the committee will question officials of KEMSA and the public procurement regulatory authority to understand how these PPEs were procured.
According to her, KEMSA did not even negotiate for the goods and yet they have already been delivered.
