• Authority picked Angelica Medical Supplies Limited through open tendering, questioned why it did not advertise for fairness and competitiveness.
• Kemsa says Angelica has been supplying them for the last nine months, denied assertions the tender was awarded because of their long-term relationship.
Image: FILE
Senators on Friday put the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority on the spot for ‘handpicking’ a firm to supply reagents and other consumables for the leased medical equipment project.
This comes amid a revelation the Pharmacy and Poisons Board – a regulatory authority that ensures the safety of imported drugs and medical supplies – was kept in the dark in the supply of the equipment and their consumables.
Kemsa Chief Executive Officer Jonah Manjari told the ad hoc committee inquiring into the Sh63 billion Managed Equipment Services programme that it contracted Angelica Medical Supplies Limited through restricted tendering to supply the commodities.
Angelica is an agent of two firms – Belco S.R.L (Medtronic) and Carestream Healthcare Inc. It supplied renal and radiology equipment to selected hospitals across the country under the programme.
The company supplies X-ray digital machines and renal consumables such as dialyses.
Each of the 47 counties was then ‘forced’ to procure the commodities from Angelica through the Kemsa. Since the supply of the equipment in 2015, the counties have spent Sh107 million for consumables and reagents for the machines from Angelica.
“Reagents and the consumables that we talking about are machine-specific. The counties could not have procured them at any other place. We contracted Angelica because we were referred by the manufactures of this equipment,” Manjari told the committee.
But the Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo-led committee read mischief in the ‘handpicking’ of Angelica saying the direct tendering could have been part of a larger plot to siphon public money in the programme.
“What is the value for money? We are in a free market and the only way to ensure the taxpayer got the value for money was to advertise and get a cheaper supplier,” Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua said.
Dullo demanded to know why individual counties were not allowed to get their own suppliers for consumables and reagents and were instead forced to acquire them from a specific one that has links with suppliers of the equipment.
Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang'ula put the CEO to the task, demanding to know why the authority did not employ open tendering for competitiveness and fair pricing.
“Why should counties be forced to buy from Angelica? This was a clear scheme and it is fortifying our position that this is a frightening scam,” Wetang'ula said.
CEO Manjari painfully reiterated that they did not force the devolved units to procure the commodities through Kemsa, explaining that it is the law that compels all public hospitals to procure from it.
“I did not authorise direct procurement because I know Angelica, but I did so because I had been referred to them by the contractors who supplied the equipment,” he said.
Kemsa procurement director told the committee that Angelica has been supplying them with commodities for the last nine months, but denied assertions the firm was awarded the tender because of its long-term relationship with the authority.
Pharmacy and Poisons Board CEO Fred Siyoi told the committee that it could not guarantee the safety of the equipment and their consumables because it was not involved in their supply.
“Clearly, from the way it is, it appears you have not been engaged. It shows that Kenyans using this equipment and the consumables are at risk," Dullo said.
Meanwhile, human rights organisations Transparency International and Kelin have called for thorough audit and investigations of the programme.
They said the programme has been shrouded in secrecy and that the public could not be getting the value for money in it.
Edited by R.Wamochie