Health Cabinet Secretary (CS) Susan Nakhumicha has revealed that a total of Ksh.63.7M ($455,000) was lost after the Global Fund cancelled a process to procure a multi-billion tender for the supply of mosquito nets.
This came after the procurement process was botched, leading to the dismissal of the Principal Secretary for Health in charge of Public Health and Professional Standards, Dr. Josephine Mburu, KEMSA CEO and Chairman, and the board.
The Global Fund had issued a multi-billion dollar tender for the supply of 10.2 million long-lasting polyethylene and polyester nets to be distributed as part of the Malaria mass campaign from November this year to July next year.
Two companies made the cut out of 17 and submitted tenders to the Global Fund, but their bids were rejected because they did not meet the mandatory documentation requirement.
As a result, the Global Fund was forced to cancel the tender and instead offer it directly to its own procurement wing, Wambo.org.
CS Nakhumicha told the Parliamentary Health Committee on Tuesday that the health ministry and the Global Fund disagreed on the specifications of the nets to be delivered, resulting in a tender amendment.
“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.”
The Health CS went on to say that due to the procurement process’s precipice, the ministry suffered a 2% loss, which was the profit they expected to make.
“Many times we say there are no losses but there are to the extent that advertisement was done, committees sat to do evaluation and time was invested in that decision,” she said.
“There is what we were to make out of that process which is 2% and that is what we lost. Had we completed the process and procured the nets we would have earned our 2% for that process. That would be $455,000 (Ksh.63.7M).”
She did, however, state that a mass campaign for mosquito nets will take place in November of this year.
