• Health CS Sicily Kariuki told the Senate ad-hoc committee investigating the scheme that her ministry has been paying for the programme.
• The CS said the scheme is budgeted for in her ministry as a development vote advanced to the devolved units as a conditional grant.
Image: FILE
The controversy over Sh63 billion leased Medical Equipment Scheme yesterday deepened further after the Healthy ministry said that counties have not been paying for it.
Health CS Sicily Kariuki told the Senate ad-hoc committee investigating the scheme that her ministry has been paying for the programme.
The CS said the scheme is budgeted for in her ministry as a development vote advanced to the devolved units as a conditional grant.
“No county has ever paid a coin for the equipment. You can ask individual counties to disclose in their budgets the money they have paid for this project,” Sicily said.
She presented the committee with a letter from the National Treasury showing that the money had been a grant.
The submission, however, infuriated the committee with some members accusing her and the ministry of misleading the country.
“In every Division of Revenue Act and County Allocation of Revenue, money for MES has always been captured as part of equitable shareable revenue,” Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula said.
Even if it was a grant, the money must go to the county revenue accounts. Grants are never deducted at source, Wetangtula said.
Sicily dismissed claims by the Council of Governors that the county chiefs were coerced to sign the Memorandum of Understanding that facilitated the supply of the equipment.
CoG chairman Wycliffe Oparanya on Tuesday told the Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo-led committee that the governors signed the MoU under duress.
He said that they were never consulted nor participated in the procurement for the equipment.
But Sicily said that the ministry widely consulted the counties and held several meetings with governors and CECs before the supply of the equipment.
All the contract documents were also availed to the council, she added.
She said that the decision to procure the hi-tech equipment was informed by the 2013-14 health performance report and a resolution of the Senate in June 2013.
The motion was sponsored by former Migori Senator Wilfred Machage.
“The report noted that most [existing] medical equipment used in public facilities is more than 20 years old (some double their lifespan) and therefore characterised by frequent breakdowns,” she said.
The Senate, she said, had resolved that the national government establishes level 5 and 4 hospitals in each of the 47 counties.
In 2015, the ministry signed Sh38 billion contracts with six international firms for the supply of the equipment for a fixed term of seven years.
However, the contract changed later and the cost increased to Sh63 billion or Sh200 million per county per year. The ministry has been deducting the money at source.
On the justification for the sharp increase in the cost, the CS said they increased the number of facilities supplied with the equipment by 21.
This was necessitated by the need for the specialised equipment in the identified hospitals to ensure access to as the ministry implements Universal Health Care.
“We also procured health care information technology for Sh4.75 billion. However, the technology stalled and we have never paid for it,” she said.
She defended the programme saying that it has saved lives in rural areas.
(edited by O. Owino)