The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority has set up a team to review its procurement process and prevent losses through the tendering process.
The task force will also evaluate the performance of their suppliers in the wake of the Covid-19 scandal where the prices of medical supplies were inflated.
The authority has been in the limelight over the procurement of personal protective equipment to fight Covid-19, with allegations that billions of shillings were lost.
Senior managers from the authority were suspended, while traders involved in the procurement of the medical supplies are under investigation.
Acting CEO Edward Njoroge said a reforms implementation committee had been instituted to provide guidance and oversight in the implementation of proposed reforms.
Njoroge noted that some of the reforms that they were keen on included reviewing their procurement process to be in line with the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act of 2015.
“We are reviewing suppliers’ performance to measure quality and consistent pricing to eliminate suppliers who fail to comply with performance requirements,” he said.
He added that Kemsa had made huge investments in automating all its business processes to ensure that counties' medical orders were received and processed on time.
“This has been made possible by the new and improved Logistics Information Management System thus enabling Kemsa to inject efficiency in the supply chain service,” he said.
Speaking at the end of the two-day workshop for county pharmacists in Naivasha, Njoroge said that they were keen to reduce the time taken to deliver medical supplies to counties.
“The authority has put in great efforts in ensuring accessibility of medical commodities by lowering the cost of healthcare, increasing access to healthcare services and improving national healthcare outcomes,” he said.
He added that under the ongoing reforms, the order turnaround time would be reduced from 16 to seven days for rural health facilities and nine to three days for urban hospitals by the end of July.
“We will ensure county governments choose appropriate medical supplies and drugs in order to meet priority health needs and to avoid wasting the limited resources,” he said.
County pharmacists’ forum chair Dr Claver Kimathi said that despite the recent crisis that rocked Kemsa, counties had adequate medical supplies.
He said the high debts owed to the authority could affect medical supply in health centres and derail gains made in the health sector.
“Despite the challenges that have faced Kemsa in the last one year, we are happy with the medical supply and we are keen to work with the authority to improve service delivery,” he said.
