Damning Exposé on How Govt Paid Ksh26 Billion For Ghost Project

A detailed report of how shady government procurement process, through the Ministry of Health which led to the proliferation of the ministry's budget, was released on Tuesday.

The damning information laid bare how the government allegedly overlooked approved and accepted bids to supply machines worth billions, long before an Intergovernmental Forum Committee (IFC) had actually sat down and decided on whether they actually needed any machines.

“At the time of the meeting, the technical and financial evaluation had been completed to determine the successful bidders and the tender processing committee was preparing an evaluation report,” the former Ministry of Health head of clinical services, Dr John Odondi divulged to Africa Uncensored.

The national government later argued that it had followed the necessary protocols and consulted with all parties, a statement that was immediately refuted by the various county representatives.

A letter was then promptly written up by the Council of Governors, citing that they had been coerced into signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to kickstart the project dubbed Managed Equipment Services (MES).

Problems arose once some machines sent out to counties ended up either unused as they were not needed, abandoned as no one within the hospital could operate them or in some cases, no machines were actually cited.

For instance, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu County allegedly received seven intensive care beds even though they had just recently bought the seven beds they needed.

Another example was cited in Bomet county where operating theatre equipment that was received in 2016 at Ndanai Hospital, stood unused for three years because the hospital did not even have surgery facilities at the time.

The report also brought to light the secrecy involved in the actual contract papers, claiming that only a handful of contractors and the Ministry of Health had actually had a chance to see the contracts.

Makueni County Senator, Mutula Kilonzo, serving under the Senate Finance Committee, got a glimpse of the contracts and raised an alarm by stating that the papers were not signed by the Cabinet Secretary Health as required.

"Data leaked to us from the public financial management portal (IFMIS) containing payment transactions between 2014 and February 2018, showed that up to February 2018 the total amount paid out to the contractors under the MES project was Kshs26,033,720,377," an excerpt of the damning report disclosed.

In one incident, Chinese Shenzhen Mindray company received payments to the tune of Ksh2 billion as early as May 2015, yet the contract was only signed in March 2017.