How taxpayers lost over Sh800m in Kemsa-like Covid scandal

The report by Nancy Gathungu shows that at least 23 counties could not account for some 1, 314, 088 Covid-19 vaccines valued at Sh810 million.

While the doses were delivered to the devolved units by the national government at the height of the pandemic, there were no records to show how they were utilised. 

This means that the vaccines could have been siphoned from the public stores and illegally sold to patients outside the formal structures to dodge accountability.

According to the report, of the 25 counties that benefited from the supplies, only Mandera and Wajir accounted for the thousands of doses they were allocated.

Nairobi has the highest unexplained variance of 427,844 vaccine doses valued at Sh266 million followed by Bomet where 104,582 doses valued at Sh60 million could not be traced.

In Homa Bay, auditors said they could not trace 70,935 doses worth Sh40.5 million, 70,255 in Kajiado valued at Sh38.1 million, and another 59,600 doses in Nakuru valued at Sh36.8 million.

Busia county lost 54,124 doses of corona vaccines valued at Sh33 million while some 59,235 doses worth Sh32 million could not be accounted for in Kakamega.

Kericho could not account for 53,818 doses of Sh31.5 million, same for Kitui where vaccines worth Sh29 million were not account for, Makueni (Sh28 million), Migori (Sh25 million) and Kisumu (Sh23 million).

Also in a spot are Kisii, Machakos,  Baringo, Narok, Nyamira, Nyandarua, Siaya and Vihiga counties, where significant number of doses were not accounted for.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu made the revelations in a Special Audit report on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout for various counties.

The audit further revealed that thousands of doses were also not administered due to failure to utilise the jabs within the stipulated timelines upon opening the vials.

In Nairobi alone, 5,121 vaccines were wasted, 4,855 in Kitui, 4,910 in Machakos, 12,876 in Kakamega, 4,391 in Siaya county in a uniform trend attributed to lack of proper refrigeration services in counties.

“Some facilities failed to monitor temperatures during transportation of vaccines and a result it was not possible to ascertain deviations beyond the acceptable WHO standards,” the report reads. 

In some instances, expired vaccines were found stored in fridges beyond the 30 days period posing the risk of the same being administered.

The audit revealed there were inherent weaknesses with the health systems inadequate for response in the event of a pandemic, and that most counties lacked budgets for Covid-19 response.

In what may bring to question the authenticity of the vaccination data, the audit established that vaccinators had unlimited access rights to the chanjo system, including posting, reversing and editing.

“This is prone to abuse,” Gathungu said, advising that vaccinators rights be limited to only recording administered doses.

Counties failed to record all vaccinating facilities in the system for managing the vaccination drive, findings which could lift the lid on Kenya’s struggling vaccination efforts.

As of September 14, a total of 21,437,009 vaccines – part of which is 34 per cent of adult population, had been administered across the country. Some 27,246,033 people are yet to take the jab.  

Gathungu also said that concerned authorities did not supervise the vaccination activities in the county, subcounty and at the health facilities where the jabs were being administered.

The supervision was to be on all matters relating to receipts, issues and utilisation of the vaccines.

“Weaknesses were noted in some of the processes including failure to capture administered doses in chanjo system, especially during the outreaches and non-recording of the wasted vaccines,” Gathungu said on Narok county.

“The facilities were not fully supported to record the receipts and administration of vaccines and monitor adverse effects,” the audit report reads.

In Nakuru, for instance, it was established that clerks would at times feed wrong batch numbers and wrong dates for vaccine administration.

“There would be instances of late data entries leading to a loss of data where the information captured manually was not clear,” the auditor said.

Among the common problems singled out in the 25 counties included inconsistence to use the chanjo system, inaccurate records and inadequate staffing for vaccinators.

The auditor further said some of the county teams were not facilitated with airtime, internet bundles and subsistence allowances.

In Makueni, the audit established there was no vaccine stock ledger, no record of expired, damaged and wasted vaccines, no power back-up, limited airtime for accessing chanjo system.

Counties were also found to lack adequate staff to administer jabs.

“In most cases, the vaccinators doubled up to register the people being vaccinated,” the auditor said.

The audit established that there was no budgetary provision for the training of staff and that no staff at the subcounties were involved in the national training for trainers.

 

(edited by Amol Awuor)