Taxpayers have not enjoyed the services of medical equipment worth Sh895 million which were acquired for Covid-19 emergency response.
A new audit shows that some of the equipment have never been put to use, were faulty or were yet to be installed as at the time of the review.
The audit from a sample of 17 health facilities established that equipment worth Sh555 million were not in use due to various reasons.
“The audit established that the hospitals lacked buildings and the required infrastructure to install the equipment while some had broken down,” Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said in a report.
The equipment were obtained in an August 2020 deal between Kenya and France, for supply of medical equipment to cater for emergency response to fight Covid-19 and fight infant mortality.
The funding was to cater for emergency response at Sh1.9 billion while Sh2 billion was to go towards interventions to reduce infant mortality.
In the report, which follows a review of supplementary budgets for the last 10 years, Gathungu says the state of affair showed there were implementation challenges.
“This indicates that the project had implementation challenges and was not fully enhancing service delivery to citizens,” the auditor said.
The sampled hospitals, the report reveals, had faulty equipment valued at Sh185 million.
“In addition, equipment worth Sh155 million were yet to be installed as at the time of the audit.”
West Hospital has the largest value of equipment not in use at Sh155 million followed by the Murang'a Level 5 hospital which has idle equipment worth Sh103 million.
Others were taken to Mukurweini Level 4, Moi Teaching and Referral, Meru County Hospital, Kilifi County Referral, Kericho County Referral, Kapkatet Sub-county hospital, Gatundu South Level 4, and Cherangany hospitals.
Gathungu reports that some equipment had broken down immediately after installation.
She cited the case of an incinerator supplied to the Kericho County Referral Hospital on November 19, 2021, which worked for only six months and broke down.
“The hospital had reverted to using an old incinerator supplied in 2012. Further, the incinerator has never been serviced since installation. As a result, the objective of the equipment was not achieved.”
For the equipment that had not yet been installed, some were yet to be put to use more than one year since they were delivered.
Auditor found some at Mosoriot Sub-County Hospital which were still in the hospital’s store, awaiting completion of renovation of buildings where they were to be installed.
In Cherengany, the construction of a theatre and radiology unit was ongoing hence the supplied equipment was yet to be installed.
At Kapkatet hospital, an oxygen plant valued at Sh20 million is yet to be installed for lack of power. The plan requires 1,000 KVA yet the existing transformer was 315 KVA.
A blood gas analyser was found out of service at Kericho county Referral Hospital the situation having been the same since July 2022.
Some lacked spare parts, most of which have to be imported from France, while others had reagents out of stock and were yet to be sourced as at the time of the audit.
None of the machines delivered to Meru county referral hospital have worked since they were acquired.
The same is the case of Moi Teaching and Referral which has items that cannot be used since they are incomplete.
In Muranga Level 5, there is an oxygen generation plant which cannot be used as some of the services are locked by the supplier.
“The oxygen plant is not working since one pump for refilling station is not working but the other system is in good condition. Some services are locked by the supplier,” the report reads.
On a positive note, however, auditors found that CT scans supplied by government to 37 health facilities in 2017-18 financial year have greatly improved accessibility of health services to the public.