•PPRA accused Kemsa of failing to provide procurement documents relating to 25 firms, part of the 141 that were awarded contracts, for review.
•Mochache has been accused of issuing illegal instructions to Kemsa.
Image: FILE
A public procurement watchdog has implicated top officials of the Ministry of Health and the troubled Kemsa in the Sh7.8 billion procurement mess at the agency.
In a preliminary investigations report presented to Parliament on Wednesday, the Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) placed Health PS Susan Mochache and suspended Kemsa CEO Jonah Manjari at the centre of the scandal.
The pair, among other officers in the procurement and finance department at Kemsa, have been identified for engaging in "illegal acts" in the entire procurement process for Covid-19 items.
This comes as the anti-graft agency announced plans to start the second phase of investigations into the scandal targeting at least 13 firms that were awarded contracts worth billions of shillings.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Eliud Wabukala and commissioner Mwaniki Gachoka told a joint Senate committee that the commission phased out the probe to cover all the "aspects of the complex" exercise.
The commission last week submitted its investigation report to DPP Noordin Haji, recommending prosecution of top Kemsa officials with offences under the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, 2003; the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act, 2015, and the Public Finance Management Act, 2012.
“This matter is our top priority, even if a PS or a CS is involved, that will be part of what we will be looking for," Wabukala told senators.
While PPRA indicted Mochache for issuing illegal instructions to Kemsa, Manjari is on the spot for illegally issuing commitment letters, failure to conduct market survey as well as handpicking suppliers out of a registered list.
In addition, PPRA accused Kemsa of failing to provide procurement documents relating to 25 firms, part of the 141 that were awarded contracts, for review.
“In the event that Kemsa does not provide these documents, then the accounting officer who is responsible for ensuring that the law is complied with will be held responsible,” PPRA director general Maurice Juma said.
Juma presented the authority’s preliminary investigations report on the procurement mess at Kemsa to the joint Senate committee on health and Covid-19 investigating the alleged scandal at the medical agency.
The authority found Mochache culpable for issuing letters to Kemsa CEO, directing him to procure the items from specific suppliers, at specific prices and in specific quantities.
“There was a letter Ref. No. MOH/ADM/1/1/171/ VIL. I (196) dated April 15, 2020 by Susan N Mochache, Ministry of Health, instructing the PE to disregard all other requests made in relation to Covid-19 as they had been captured therein including the list items to be procured, their quantities, prices and firms to be invited,” the report reads in part.
Juma said the PS’s instruction were illegal and should form the basis for investigations by the EACC.
“There is a letter from PS MoH which directed Kemsa to procure items from specific suppliers and also the prices were indicated therein. This is irregular because in the procurement like this that was done by Kemsa, the MoH should have just referred the matter to Kemsa indicting the items to be procured, quantities, specifications and probably the delivery timeframe and where these items were to be delivered to,” Juma said.
While appearing before the National Assembly Health Committee a fortnight ago, Mochache denied directing Kemsa to buy the items from specific firms. She said that the list she attached to the letter she wrote to Kemsa was generated by the authority itself.
According to investigations by PPRA, the PS’s directive and the letters of intent from potential suppliers initiated the procurement of the Covid-19 items.
Upon receipt of the letters of intent, Manjari issued commitment letters without seeking professional opinion from procurement officers contrary to the law.
“The commitment letters did not contain clear specifications despite deliveries being based on the letters,” Juma said.
“Most of the items procured, prices were based on letters from MOH and intent letters from suppliers. We also noted that the procurement plan estimates on items such as paracetamol tablets 500mg Blister of 100s previously sold at Sh40 per pack but were bought at Sh66.50 during the Covid-19 period,” he added.
The authority questioned the rationale for direct procurement by Kemsa. Further, Kemsa is accused of disregarding a list of registered companies in handpicking the companies.
“The PE used direct procurement based under Section 103 (2) (b) and (c) of the Act. However, we noted that some of the deliveries were made one month after issuance of commitment letters while others have not been delivered to date casting doubt on the justification of the urgency,” read the report.
In addition, some of the suppliers delivered excess items while others did not meet the specifications in terms of quantities.
“When we match the records and the deliveries that were given to us through the delivery records by the suppliers, you find some of them were in excess. Some were in deficit,” Amy Kissinger, PPRA lead investigator in the procurement mess at Kemsa, said.