- MES project was launched for a seven-year lease programme that ran from May 2015 to May 2022.
- The Ministry of Health extended the term by a further three subject to the signing of the agreement by the governors.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
A legal crisis looms in the management of the leased medical equipment after it emerged the governors are yet a sign deals to extend the contract even as parliament moves to allocate funds.
Although the national government has extended the term of the managed equipment service (MES) program, the county bosses are yet to put pen to paper to legalize the extension.
However, parliament is fast-tracking the passage of the county additional allocation bill that allocates Sh5.2 billion for the program in the current financial year.
“There is no county that has contracted for the extension of the lease. CoG has not taken a position on this but we are aware that some 26 Counties have expressed desire to extend,” Council of Governors vice chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi said.
MES project was launched in May 2015 for a seven-year lease program that ended in May 2022.
The Ministry of Health extended the term by a further three subject to the signing of the agreement by the governors.
This was even as the governors continued to lament about the implementation of the program, saying that the program was not based on the ‘needs’ of the counties.
Abdullahi spoke when he appeared before the Senate Budget and Finance Committee chaired by Mandera senator Ali Roba.
The Wajir governor led his colleagues; Fernandes Barasa (Kakamega), Mutula Kilonzo Jr (Makueni) and Abdulswamad Shariff (Mombasa) before the panel.
They represented the Council of Governors in the panel to give their views on the County Government Additional Allocation Bill, 2022.
The bill, allocates grants and loans from the National government and development partners.
The county bosses insisted that the project was shrouded in opaqueness and distribution of medical equipment was not pegged on the needs of the specific counties.
As such, many equipment are either still lying idle or are underutilized in the county hospitals.
“Someone comes to you that if you don’t buy this equipment I will carry it and go with it. How do you account for that? If you want to know about the opaqueness this is where opaqueness started from,” said Mutula said.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Shariff told the committee that each county has unique issues that can be addressed by MES, adding that it was wrong to just equip hospitals without carrying out a need analysis.
The Mombasa county chief charged that while some equipment was supplied to the Coast General Hospital, there are other machines that they would have required apart from the ones that were issued.
“There was no need for analysis done before the supply of this medical equipment. Every county has unique issues. For us in Mombasa, we would require something different from what was provided to us,” said Sharrif.
During a full council meeting at on December 20, 2021, a MES review committee proposed a three-year extension in a report considered by the CoG.
Roba, who is a former Mandera governor, said that although most of the equipment was supplied to the Health facilities at the Counties, an assessment was not carried out as the needs of the devolved units.
“How much was agreed to be deducted from the Counties to fund MES? What was the content of the lease agreement?” posed Roba.
However, Abdullahi further explained to the committee that the way the lease agreement was pitched was not to affect what is in the equitable share.
“The machines are in our hospitals using them with all the difficulties. Those are questions for new schemes,” said Abdullahi.
“Now that the machines are there, removing the Sh5.2billion from this Bill will affect service delivery; those are issues we can process. We don’t want to disrupt service delivery, but we will have to look at these questions hard and would be wiser for any new schemes.”