• During the 30-day period, some operations will be managed by the National Youth Service. Staff will be evaluated, soe retained.
•The board settled on reforms strategies to improve Kemsa governance, procurement and processes.
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
Kemsa is getting a relentless mucking out, staff are being sent home for 30 days and vetted so the medial supplies authority is no longer infected by graft.
Board chair Mary Mwadime said on Thursday the agency has been found to be in a financial crisis with rising debt and supply chain problems.
She also cited warehousing and distribution "chaos and procurement challenges due to operating inefficiencies".
The government is purging the Kenya Medical supplies Authority of corrupt elements at the agency mandated with providing medical supplies and logistics.
Staff members on Thursday were ordered to work from home for the next one month. Their positions were declared redundant by Kemsa board chaired by Mary Mwadime.
During the 30 days, some operations will be managed by the National Youth Service working closely with the Public Service Commission.
Mwadime said the workers would be appraised and those found fit rehired. Redundant and unnecessary positions will be eliminated.
Those likely to be worst hit by the reforms are the finance, warehouse and procurement departments, given the vast amounts of Covid-19-related purchases above market costs.
Mwadime said the board had settled on three reforms strategies for Kemsa governance and processes going forward.
“The Board confirms necessary interventions have been put in place to avoid disruptions of service delivery. The review will be undertaken to ensure staff complement fits the purpose,” Mwadime said.
“We will have continuous staff engagement and consultation within the next 30 days where all staff will be engaged and appraised throughout the notice period,” she said.
The board chair said the reforms are to align the organisation to industry standards and will go a long way to realise the Universal Health Care agenda.
“I am encouraged the Kemsa staff, management and other partners have expressed commitment to these reforms,” Mwadime said.
Having cited all the crises and chaos, the chairperson said the agency is underperforming as a result and largely unable to meet the mandate such as delivery of essential medicines and products to counties and referral hospitals.
A hue and cry has greeted the reforms.
Narok Senator Ledama Olekina said "poor juniors" were being at the authority.
The said exercise may lead to some or all positions as presently constituted being rendered redundant.Kemsa notice
You must follow the law. On Friday we proceed to court to stop this illegality," he said in a tweet.
A redundancy notice issued to staff says, “The contemplated organisational restructuring will involve changes in the processes of the authority to enable it discharge its mandate effectively and efficiently.”
The changes, the notice reads, would involve re-examining the various roles played by each Kemsa employee and re-designating the roles to align the staff to approved numbers.
“The said exercise may lead to some or all positions as presently constituted being rendered redundant,” the notice reads.
The board cited the intense scrutiny the organisation has been subjected to, owing to concerns of misappropriation of billions of shillings, including donor aid.
“The authority has in the recent past been under scrutiny over mismanagement and lack of accountability,” the notice said.
Kemsa was plagued by a Sh7.8 billion scandal involving the purchase of items for use in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A task force formed to assess the agency recommended the organisational restructuring of the supplies authority.
The team said this was in order to overhaul and strengthen the capacity of the agency to deliver.
Kemsa has been a going concern since the scandal erupted, and has been under probe by not only the investigative agencies but also Parliament.
Earlier, the Public Investments Committee of the National Assembly had recommended the investigation and possible prosecution of Kemsa board members and some of the authority’s senior staff over the alleged loss.
The Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir-led committee recommended that the EACC investigates former chairman Kembi Gitura, Joel Onsare and former Kemsa board members.
PIC also invited the anti-graft agency to investigate the top Kemsa management on how it processed payments to some suppliers as well as officers who allegedly have forged documents.
(Edited by V. Graham)