Nairobi — Counties placed orders at KEMSA worth Sh700 million in a rush to beat the June 30 deadline of the financial year closure.
KEMSA, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Andrew Mulwa said the orders for Health Products and Technologies (HPT's) are the highest as KEMSA worked towards closing for an annual stock take.
Orders trickled last week as counties rushed to place their requests with KEMSA ahead of the Authority announcing its cut-off date effective this Monday, 3rd July 2023, which will see the Authority temporarily suspend its operations in order to undertake this key exercise. However, emergency supplies will be handled on need basis.
From June this year, KEMSA received and processed Health Products and Technologies (HPT's) orders from various counties including; Siaya - Kshs.44.5M, Machakos - Kshs.45M, Bomet -Kshs.65M, Meru - Kshs.68M, Embu - Kshs.15M and Mandera - Kshs.11 million.
By the end of last week, KEMSA received and processed orders from Trans Nzoia - Kshs.35M, Nyamira - Kshs.30M, Bungoma - Kshs.13M, Kilifi - Kshs.300M, Kwale - Kshs.70M, Nandi -Kshs.32M and Garissa - 4.3M.
In a move meant to shield counties from experiencing an interrupted flow of medical commodities to their health facilities, Mulwa urged the operations directorate to fast track the processing of all orders before closing for stock take.
"We want patients to have a continuous supply of HPT's in the county health facilities during this important annual routine exercise. Therefore, I'm calling on the commercial division to ensure that they advise all counties to submit their orders ahead of time to avoid last-minute rush," urged the CEO.
The Authority plans to speed up the stock-take exercise, with normal business operations expected to resume on Monday, 10th July 2023.
"Stock-taking is fundamental in business management, more so for an organisation like KEMSA that holds physical inventory valued at more than Kshs 100 billion annually. At KEMSA, we are taking this exercise seriously as it will help us physically identify and quantify existing stock levels, verify the stock condition and generally ensure that we do not have an unexplained variance between our system records and the inventory in our warehouses," Dr Mulwa said.
She added, "This exercise will enable us to review and update our internal controls as we will identify gaps that need to be fixed, including procurement levels, physical security and related inventory management aspects."
Dr Mulwa pledged to improve the order fill rate of Essential Medicines and Technologies including tracer commodities, which are critical in providing health care service delivery in health facilities across the country.
So far, the Authority is holding discussions with various suppliers to expedite delivery of these essential tracer commodities that will improve the order fill rate.
Delays in restocking of essential health products and technologies has been occasioned by KEMSA's inability to pay suppliers on time owing to cash flow challenges.
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Dr. Mulwa appealed to the counties that as KEMSA puts in extra effort to service all orders, they need to make good their payment promises by clearing all outstanding debts currently at Kshs.3.0 billion. This will allow the Authority to pay its suppliers on time and restock essential Health Products and Technologies.
He added, "KEMSA operates a not-for-profit commercial business model and as such whatever we get paid it is ploughed back into the revolving fund which is used to procure more HPTs. and expand the product range."
The CEO expressed that KEMSA is banking on its superior supply chain management experience and infrastructure which is supported by robust information technology systems to boost operational efficiency at all levels.
