Senate finds Managed Equipment Services project fraudulent
Hillary Mageka @hillarymageka
The leasing of medical equipment under the Managed Equipment Services (MES) project was not tailored to suit specific county needs as would have been the case if a more consultative needs-assessment process had been followed, a new report has revealed.
A senate Ad hoc committee established to investigate the facts surrounding the leasing of the medical equipment, in the then 119 benefitting hospitals countrywide, has also noted that there were wide inter and intra-county disparities in the status of implementation of the project across the counties.
For example, during its visit to Isiolo county, the committee found that there was a large disparity in the standard of implementation of the MES project between Isiolo County Referral Hospital and Garbatulla Sub-County Hospital.
“Whereas all the equipment in Isiolo County Referral Hospital was operational and in good working order, none of the equipment supplied to Garbatulla SDH was functional save for a CSSD machine,” the report reads in part.
In Elgeyo Marakwet, the Committee chaired by Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo found that the theatre and radiology equipment supplied to Chebiemit and Kamwosor Sub-County Hospitals, only the mobile X-Ray machine at Chebiemit SCH and the CSSD machine at Kamwosor SCH were reported functional.
“The committee observes that in order to accommodate the equipment supplied under the MES project, County Governments were constrained to incur costly and unforeseen expenditure in infrastructural development and recruitment/training of specialised personnel,” it adds.
These costs, according to the nine-member panel had not been factored into county budgets or CIDPs.
Criminal enterprise
As such, the senators’ said counties were forced to reallocate funds from other votes to accommodate the project.
The committee also established that had the MES Project been implemented in a stepwise and progressive manner that factored in the need to address these challenges, more impact would have been realised from the MES Project.
For instance, despite having functional X-Ray and theatre equipment prior to devolution, Laikipia county was still supplied with new X-Ray and theatre equipment.
While describing the project as a criminal enterprise shrouded in secrecy, the committee said some counties did not receive uniform equipment under the project.
