The Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA) can not account for 908,000 mosquito nets, 1.1 million condoms, and tuberculosis drugs worth Sh10 million
According to the Global Fund which finances the fight against HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria revealed that the stolen medicine are being resold to private practitioners.
The Agency accused KEMSA of overstating the value of medicines by Sh640 million, with some types of drugs having been inflated 100 times, says an audit by Global Fund.
“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 was on Wednesday quoted as stating by Business Daily.
Global fund in its report further said that some fake suppliers are demanding Ksh 1.66 billion from the State Agency
“We identified 165 long outstanding/undelivered local purchase orders (LPOs) valued at $14.5 million (Sh1.66 billion). The high number of LPOs without attached delivery notes poses the risk of fake suppliers or diverted procurements,” added the report.
The report also revealed that Kemsa had expired drugs yet most public Hospitals do not have drugs.
Since the beginning of COVID-19 Kemsa has been in the limelight for all the bad reasons.
As the embattled state agency struggles to clear its name from the numerous corruption cases that are being investigated by DCI and EACC for an irregular expenditure, this report has more questions than answers.