The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) is on the spot once again after a fresh scandal linking officials to a loss of donations in unclear circumstances.
An audit by Global Fund, a Switzerland-based organization that funds governments to combat HIV/AIDS, has revealed that 1.1 million condoms, 908,000 mosquitoes and tuberculosis drugs worth over Ksh10 million had vanished from the KEMSA warehouse in Nairobi.
The foreign donor also established that the agency had overstated the value of drugs by at least Ksh640 million.
The organization suspects that the donations were stolen from KEMSA and sold to private health facilities in the country.
Apparently, the theft was aided by poor inventory management at the agency.
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“Kemsa has poor internal controls on warehousing and inventory management, resulting in 16 percent differences in batch numbers verified, and discrepancies of 908,000 long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) between actual and expected stock balances,” the Global Fund’s report read.
In what could lead to the loss of more funds, the embattled agency owes suspected fake suppliers over Ksh1.66 billion.
“We identified 165 long outstanding/undelivered local purchase orders (LPOs) valued at $14.5 million (Ksh1.66 billion). The high number of LPOs without attached delivery notes poses the risk of fake suppliers or diverted procurements,” added the report.
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Further, it has been established that some drugs donated to Kenya expired at the KEMSA warehouse even as many public hospitals face an acute shortage of medicines.
Kenya has received more than Ksh159.6 billion in funding from the organization since 2003.
The organization, whose donors are France, US, Germany and Japan, now wants KEMSA probed over the theft.
COVID-19 Billionaires
KEMSA is under probe over misappropriation of funds set aside for the fight against COVID-19 in the country.
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Kemsa is accused of having procured Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) at a double market price leading to the loss of billions in 2020.
In December last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji urged Kenyans to be patient as investigators work around the clock to build a water-tight case against the beneficiaries after concerns over delays.
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