- As at May 13, 2021 the state agency held a stock of Sh5.45 Billion from the original procurement of Sh7.6 billion.
- So far, a total of Sh2.2 billion have been sold.
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority has declared it has no cash for Covid suppliers even as it records Sh790 million losses in expired PPEs.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Health Committee, Kemsa acting CEO Edward Njoroge told MPs he will be seeking their support to pay Sh2.9 billion owed to suppliers.
Njoroge said they have no allocation for the payment explaining further that the board only resolved to dispose the PPEs and deal with legitimate suppliers.
This means the Kemsa suppliers will have to contend with the long wait before their debts are cleared.
“We do not have money to pay, we will come back to this committee to request for funds to pay the suppliers,” Njoroge said.
He also told the House team that the state agency is staring at Sh790 million losses as a result of expired Personal Protective Equipment.
The expired equipment include overalls, gloves, face shield and shoe covers.
He however noted that Kemsa has put in place a team to ascertain whether the items, which have been lying at the warehouses for over a year now, have expired as claimed or not.
“The items that we have listed as expired are PPEs and the values are Sh790 million. However, there is an exercise going on to validate. It is not possible that all of them have expired so we are unpacking them,” he said.
The acting CEO also narrated the frustrations the agency is facing in disposing the PPEs with most government bodies including counties and parastatals rejecting their products citing higher prices as compared to prevailing market prices.
According to Njoroge, the agency has only managed to sell to 35 counties while the remaining 12 have been reluctant, citing the high charges.
“The Kemsa regional and county teams have been visiting various health facilities to solicit for orders for the items. This has seen a slight increase in the number of orders of the Covid-19 commodities coming from the counties,” he said.
“To be considered is the requests of the counties to further reduce the selling prices to be at par with the open market prices to enable them to procure more quantities.”
The Covid-19 commodity prices have been on a continuous decline, a development that continues to affect their value.
The agency has up to the end of the year to dispose the items which have been the subject of a protracted probe by both parliamentary committees and investigative agencies.
As at May 13, 2021, the state agency held a stock of Sh5.45 billion from the original procurement of Sh7.6 billion.
“So far, a total of Sh2.2 billion have been sold. The paid commodities are Sh4.7 billion while the unpaid goods are Sh2.9 billion,” he said.
Njoroge was appearing before the Health Committee session that was chaired by Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny to apprise the team on the status of the implementation of the approval of the disposal of health commodities.
-Edited by SKanyara