Nairobi — Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha has said Sh63.7m ($455,000) has been lost due to delayed process of securing grants from Global Fund in mosquito nets procurement.
Appearing before the National Assembly Health Committee Tuesday, Nakhumicha said that the losses would not have occurred if the ministry had begun the nets' purchase procedure earlier.
"Many times, we say there are no losses. But there are, to the extent that advertisement was done, evaluation was done, and time was invested in that decision," she said.
"We lost what we were to make out of that process, which is a 2% which amounts to $455,000 (Sh 63.7 million). That is a loss that we ought not to have incurred."
CS Nakhumicha added that a change to the tender was made as a result of a disagreement between the health ministry and the Global Fund over the requirements for the delivery of the mosquito nets.
She stated that the Global Fund recognized the shortcomings in the procurement process, and she stated that the ministry needed to clear up the mess and fix the gaps before applying for a fresh purchase from the Global Fund.
"Global Fund gave reasons on why they decided to go to Wambo. One is that a new open international tender would need to be issued which would take longer based on our procurement regulation," she said.
"They noted the gaps in the procurement process and therefore they were cautioning themselves and ourselves against the gaps which I believe now is an opportunity we clean up our house to be able to carry out the next procurement of Global Fund."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
However, she affirmed that there will still be a significant mosquito net distribution campaign in November of this year.
"The nets will be delivered to KEMSA from Global Fund's procuring entity Wambo, we shall still get whatever we get in terms of storage and distribution. It is important to highlight that it is an opportunist loss because we anticipated getting that 2%, yet we missed it because of this," she added.
This comes after a failed procurement procedure that resulted in the firing of the board, Josephine Mburu, the Principal Secretary for Health in charge of Public Health and Professional Standards, and KEMSA's CEO and Chairman.
As part of a massive campaign to combat malaria, the Global Fund floated a multibillion-dollar tender for the delivery of 10.2 million durable polyethylene and polyester nets, which will be distributed between November of this year and July of next.
