Inside minister, Tum’s tiff with besieged Kemsa boss
The mess surrounding Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) took a new twist after it emerged that there was illegal hiring of employees that bloated workforce from 378 to 910.
In a letter, then Medical Services PS Peter Tum said the Ministry of Health was aware of various pertinent issues that were going on at the authority and thus wanted them addressed before implementation of any new Human Resources scheme.
Tum is the current Sports PS. His warning came after suspended chief executive Terry Ramadhan wrote to the ministry asking for permission to implement voluntary early retirement of staff.
“Reference is made to your letter Ref. No. Kemsa/CEO/MOH/PS/23/20 dated March 20, 2023 seeking for concurrence to implement voluntary early retirement of staff in the authority,” the letter.
But Tum objected Ramadhani’s request and instead ordered that all issues be resolved before implementation of new HR instruments.
In his letter, Tum argued that they are aware that the bloated workforce could have arisen out of unchecked recruitment of staff on contract following the development of new HR instruments in 2021.
He raised concerns that Kemsa officers who were engaged for specific projects were retained and continued to draw salaries even after the project had expired while several staff were working from home over a year.
Further, he noted that despite some employees working from home, there existed a caretaker team drawn from the wider public service that was performing their duties.
He further regretted that the authority had recruited staff on short term contracts to perform duties of officers who were working from home, adding that they were also aware of the rationalisation programme, which was to happen yet some staff had already gone to court to challenge the process. The cases are yet to be heard and determined.
Following the move, Tum ordered the recalling of all employees working from home and fast-tracking of the exit of those on contract in accordance with existing legal framework in order to deal with bloated workforce.
Legal framework
He also ordered Kemsa to negotiate with the officials who are in court for a possible out of court settlement, advertise vacant positions, institutionalise performance management in order to hold officers accountable as well as undertake comprehensive business re-engineering to address some of the systemic challenges facing the authority.
“Release the caretaker team and those on secondment to their respective employers. Terminate contract of the staff recently appointed to join Kemsa who are drawing salaries against positions held by officers who are working from home,” the report adds.
Besides the bloated workforce, it has also emerged that Ramadhani had also been given several warnings before she was suspended.
According to documents in our possession, Tum and Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha had opposed Ramadhani’s request to buy a new system known as off the shelf-enterprise resources.
The duo had also opposed her plans to change specification of the National Malaria Programme that targets millions of low-income households within malaria endemic regions.
Nakhumicha, in a letter to Ramadhani, raised concerns over the change of specification, saying the user departments should always generate them.
“Do furnish my office with a written explanation as to why Kemsa altered the user specification and what informed that decision,” Nakhumicha said. On the off-shelf programme, Tum, in a letter, told Ramadhani to shelve the plan as the ministry was in the process of developing an end to end integrated systems that will strengthen the health information system from the community to the National level through innovative approaches and new technologies and in line with the Government’s policies.
