Woman who walked into KEMSA offices and left with Sh300m tender

Zubeda Nyamulendo, the Director at Aszure Commercial Services, on Wednesday stunned the Public Investment Committee that is chaired by Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir when she narrated how she left Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) offices with a Sh300m tender.

Jaws dropped when she told the committee how she left with the huge tender to supply Covid-19 protective masks.

Modestly dressed, she avoided many of the questions leaving the committee puzzled.

The House team is probing the Covid-19 supplies and equipment scam that happened last year.

A report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in 2020 on the procurement scandal at KEMSA revealed that Sh2.3 billion was lost in procuring Covid-19 medical supplies.

Gathungu revealed how billions of shillings were unaccounted for and how there was no evidence of budgetary approval by relevant authorities.

The auditor-general concluded that Kemsa irregularly utilized the Universal Health Coverage and budget to procure Covid-19 related items worth Sh7,632,068,588.

“The procurement process was not initiated based on need assessment and planning resulting in over-procurement of Covid-19 related stock worth Sh6.3b that is still being held at KEMSA warehouses. 97 per cent of the stock has been in the Kemsa warehouses for more than three months implying inadequate market forecasting and planning practices.”

“The items were procured at a higher price as compared to the current market pricing implying that KEMSA may realize a loss of Sh.2,338,261,175 if the products are to be sold at the current market price,” she reported.

The report also showed KEMSA’s 2019/2020 budget did not have any allocation for Covid-19 related procurements, contrary to a letter addressed to Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe dated August 15, 2020, that said, KEMSA had utilized the Universal Health Coverage Budget (UHC) to fund the Covid -19 procurements.

The Auditor-General established that the Ministry of Health allocated Sh13 billion to the medical agency to finance UHC. Out of this, only Sh8.5b was disbursed to Kemsa.