Staff at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority are staring at redundancies after the lapse of a 30-days remote working order.
On Thursday, the agency’s board sent home all staff as part of ongoing reforms after recommendations by the Kemsa Immediate Action Plan and Medium-Term Reforms Working Committee.
During the 30 days, operations at the authority will be taken over by the National Youth Service.
Among those who will be most affected by the reforms are those working in the finance, warehouse and procurement departments.
In a letter to staff seen by The Star, the agency has stated that the decision for recall staff will be based on seniority, merit, ability and reliability and the authority’s established institutional policies.
Others include ability of Kemsa to pay, staff contracts with the agency and provisions of the Employment Act.
“The changes will involve among other things re-examining the various roles played by each of its employees and re-designating those roles so as to achieve the objective of the restructuring and align the roles to the approved staff numbers,” the letter reads in part.
“The said exercise may lead to some or all positions as presently constituted being rendered redundant,” it adds.
Board chairperson Mary Chao Mwadime on Thursday said workers would be appraised and those found fit rehired.
The board chair noted that the agency has been found to be in a financial crisis with a rising debt crisis, supply chain crisis, warehousing and distribution ‘chaos’ and procurement challenges due to operating inefficiencies.
As a result, the agency is currently underperforming and is largely unable to meet the mandate such as delivery of essential medicines and products to counties and referral hospitals.
The management has however said the going changes are not related to the recent scandal at the agency related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“All staff will be apprised and engaged throughout the notice period. There is the issue of psychosocial support which the board has taken into consideration and the necessary counseling and psychological support will be availed to all staff,” Mwadime said.
“We are undergoing reforms in line with the legal instruments and the consultations made with the legal entities. Necessary interventions have been put in place to avoid undue disruptions to service delivery and other day to day operations,” she added.
A taskforce formed to assess the agency recommended the organizational restructuring of the supplies authority.
The team said this was in order to overhaul and strengthen the capacity of the agency to deliver on both its statutory mandate.
The redundancy notice notes that the authority has been under intense scrutiny over mismanagement and lack of accountability, which has led to a standoff with USAID over distribution of HIV drugs.
