- Ministry awarded leasing agreements for provision of specialised medical equipment to counties worth Sh38 billion
- Muoki argues foreign companies with ministry exaggerated cost of equipment
A Kenyan has sued the Health ministry over a Sh38 billion tender for supply of medical equipment and wants payment of the remaining Sh28 billion stopped.
Also sought is an order for an audit to be carried out on the project by an independent international company.
Daniel Muoki is challenging the tender due to what he calls lack of transparency and inflated cost.
The companies involved in the contract that Muoki is challenging are Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Company Limited, Esteem Industries (India), Bellco Srl (Italy), Phillips Medical Services and General Electric (USA).
According to suit papers, sometime in February 2015 the ministry of Health initiated a seven-year program known as managed equipment services (MES) under which it engaged different international companies for supply, installation, maintenance, replacement and disposal of various equipment.
The ministry awarded leasing agreements for the provision of specialized medical equipment to counties worth Sh38 billion. The program is now in its fourth year.
It has so far been implemented in 98 hospitals across the 47 counties with focus on theatre, central sterile services department, renal ICU and radiology equipment.
Notably, renal equipment is in use in 44 out of the 49 earmarked facilities in which it has been installed.
Counties in which the equipment remain unused are Lamu, Mandera, Tana River, Wajir and West Pokot due to lack of requisite staff and inadequate water and electricity.
Theatre equipment are used only in 92 out of the 96 earmarked facilities whereas radiology equipment has been installed in 97 hospitals.
However 19 counties remain unable to benefit from the services owing to variety of reasons.
These are Bomet, Busia, Elgeyo Marakwet, Isiolo, Kakamega, Kitui, Kwale, Makueni, Meru, Migori, Narok, Nyamira, Samburu, Siaya, Tana River, Tharaka Nithi, Trans Nzoia, Turkana and West Pokot.
The petitioner says the total tender sum for the program is $432,482,160, equivalent to Sh43.2 billion, paid in quarterly installments of $15,445,790 (Sh1.52 billion)
A total of $181,711,277.84 (Sh18.16 billion) has so far been paid with a balance of $287,850,780 (Sh28.78 billion).
Muoki argues that the foreign companies together with the ministry exaggerated cost of equipment supplied in comparison to prevailing market rate thereby exposing the tax payer to a huge burden.
TENDER SUM
The petitioner says the total tender sum for the program is $432,482,160, equivalent to Sh43.2 billion, paid in quarterly installments of $15,445,790 (Sh1.52 billion)
A total of $181,711,277.84 (Sh18.16 billion) has so far been paid with a balance of $287,850,780 (Sh28.78 billion).
For example, he says, the contract indicates that recurrent cost such as supply of consumables and reagents as well as equipment maintenance were to be covered at no additional cost to the facilities yet the ministry continues to pay for the same without any accountability.
"Despite several accountability and transparency issues raised by counties, counties were compelled to pay Sh95 million per annum for the project," he says.
The extra Sh95 million which is factored in the project has adversely affected the budgets of counties and, to make things worse, the figure has since been revised upwards to Sh200 million, the court was told.
The counties did not receive uniform equipment under the project which in turn puts those that had received less support at a disadvantage from those who got proportionately more support.
Muoki accuses the ministry of failing to conduct a needs assessment prior to launching the project, with the result that the equipment installed did not correspond with the actual needs of a county.
"Various equipment installed under the MES project remain unused in at least half of the counties across the nation, yet the affected counties are still being compelled to pay for them," he says.
Muoki alleges that counties did not receive full disclosure on the contracts that were entered into on their behalf with equipment manufacturers.
The Health ministry together with the companies sued are yet to respond because the matter was filed yesterday.