• Mochache accuses Public Procurement Regularity Authority director-general Maurice Juma of peddling false information on a matter that had been addressed.
• Juma said the PS’s instruction was illegal and should form the basis for investigations by the EACC.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Health PS Susan Mochache has demanded an apology from a public procurement watchdog over a statement linking her to the mess at the troubled Kenya Medical Supplies Authority.
In a letter to Public Procurement Regularity Authority (PPRA) board chairman Andrew Musangi, Mochache protested the authority’s assertions that she was involved in the Sh7.8 billion scandal at Kemsa.
“In the circumstances, therefore, I demand that the DG or PPRA itself give an apology and provide the correct facts in order to set the record straight and bare the truth to the public,” the letter reads.
The PS wrote the letter moments after PPRA director-general Maurice Juma appeared before a Senate committee probing Kemsa procurement and placed her at the centre of the mess.
Juma had told the joint Health and ad hoc committee on Covid-19 that Mochache instructed Kemsa CEO Jonah Manjari, through a letter, to procure the items from specific suppliers at specific prices and in specific quantities.
"There was a letter...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.”
Juma said the PS’s instruction was illegal and should form the basis for investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
“This is irregular because, in the procurement like that done by Kemsa, the MoH should have just referred the matter to Kemsa indicating the items to be procured, quantities, specifications and probably the delivery timeframe and where these items were to be delivered to,” he said.
But Mochache denied instructing Kemsa and instead accused Juma of peddling false information on a matter that had been addressed.
“I wish to write to you to register my deepest exception to this glaringly false statement, which the DG made without the courtesy of seeking any explanation or clarification from me.
"This is despite the fact that I had set the record straight and exhaustively addressed this matter when the CS for Health and I appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Health on September 2, 2020,” she said.,
The PS clarified that she was not the originator of the list of firms and prices from where Kemsa was to procure items. She explained that Kemsa, upon her request, submitted a status report on the procurement of Covid-19-related items submitted to her via email on April 1, 2020, by Kemsa CEO.
The report showed that the authority had committed to procuring about Sh2.1 billion worth of items. Out of this, goods worth about Sh149 million had been delivered, leaving a balance of about Sh2 billion.
The report, she said in the letter, also bore among other details, the names of the suppliers and prices of items.
“Clearly, this commitment was way above the available resources amounting to Sh758 million. As a result of this revelation, I called a meeting on April 6, 2020, with a view to addressing the discrepancies between what the ministries had requisitioned and what Kemsa had ordered,” she said.
She said that it was at this meeting that she asked Kemsa to rationalise the budget to align it with what the ministry had been allocated for PPE (Sh758 million). Subsequently, via an email dated April 7, 2020, the Kemsa CEO downscaled the procurement budget to match the ministry’s budget calling of Sh758 million.
“The document submitted by Kemsa again contained details on the commodities to be procured, the suppliers and prices. It was clear from the Kemsa email April 7, 2020, that it was actually Kemsa who provided the details of suppliers and commodity prices while submitting the rationalised budget,” she added.
"It must be made abundantly clear that my concerns in this matter were solely on the budget and I had no intention to manage or direct the procurement process at Kemsa which is the authority’s sole prerogative.”