Email dossier reveals corruption and impunity in Kenyatta National Hospital

A picture taken on March 15, 2020 shows the entrance of the Infectious Disease Unit of Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, during the COVID-19 outbreak We are humbly requesting your esteemed offices to individually and collectively look into the following raised matters that are taking KNH to its knees. We are all effortlessly hoping for a better institution. That one day would operate as per the law and expectations of the society. Thank you in advance. Procurement of Lab equipment Scam On 10th November 2020, KNH advertised tender number KNH/T/82/2021-2022 for operational leasing of laboratory equipment-fully automated immunoassay for immunochemistry analyzer. The tender closed on 3rd December 2020 and 4 bidders participated: New Science Africa Ltd, Sciencescope Ltd, Meditec Systems Ltd and Rennaissance Health Ltd.  Evaluation committee was appointed by the CEO following recommendation by the head of Procurement. All bidders passéd preliminary evaluation stage. Two bidders: Sciencescope Ltd & Rennaissance Health Ltd passed the technical evaluation stage and proceeded to the financial evaluation stage. Sciencescope quoted Kshs. 102,879,013.59 and Rennaissance quoted Kshs. 25,144,255.00. The other two bidders had each quoted above Kshs. 100M. The evaluation committee, as part of the tender requirements, were supposed to carry out a due diligence exercise to ascertain the completeness and capability of the lowest evaluated bidder before award. This was completely ignored by the evaluation committee. It has been confirmed, after a long and thorough investigations, that the tender was schemed to be a complete scam, whereby, the head of procurement then, colluded with the Rennaissance Health Ltd, the company that would later be awarded the tender, and the evaluation committee, to fix the tender whereby the supplier would bring documents without delivering, later after signing the contract, for the head of procurement to facilitate signing and certification of the delivery, installation and commissioning of the documents so as to make sure that payment was done for a machine that was supposed to be a fake delivery. What was negligently ignored by these people was that it's VERY COSTLY to supply air in KNH. This was orchestrated even before the tender closed. The evaluation committee was clearly aware of the scheme and had already negotiated the take home for each one of them. It would later be realized later that the tender was awarded using fake documents. The supplier forged Manufacturers authorization so as to meet the requirements in the tender document. This was done in full knowledge of the office of the head of procurement. That’s why the part of the due diligence that was mandatory in the tender document, was completely ignored by the committee. The tender would later be awarded to Rennaissance Health Ltd. After which it was challenged in the procurement Review Board. The office of the Director Procurement KNH would later influence the decision of the Review board which saw the ruling go in favour of KNH. The dis-satisfied bidder was not happy with the decision of the review board and would later proceed to the court after knowing how the head of procurement influenced the ruling. The case is still pending in court. KNH went ahead to sign contracts for the challenged tender. The machine would later be delivered in the hospital after the issue went to the public domain hence making it impossible to supply air. The machine now cannot perform the intended functions satisfactorily and the users are being coerced to pretend that everything is okay and give a positive report in case investigations commence on the same. This is just a tip of the iceberg. We call for thorough investigations by Biomedical experts. We will expose the mother of all scandals soon including a construction project, in KNH popularly known as BADEA and explain how the management knowingly included specific intentional gaps in the contract, in liaison with the legal department that would give provision for fines and penalties by the contractor that would chunks of MONEY to be shared between the contractor and the cartels in the management. Also include Altrab Ltd, a company that has been contracted by KNH for ERP-E hospital management system that is installing the system even with evident issues in the contract. Not forgetting the cleaning and security contracts. KNH-KEMSA THEFT/LOOT From the start of 2019-2020 Financial Years KNH together with senior and influential bosses of the ministry of Health developed a scheme that would later look like a high level establishment of a cartel under MOH that would link MOH, KNH and KEMSA. It was decided that KEMSA would create an account for KNH under the Universal Health Care, whereby KNH would draw items from KEMSA instead of buying the consumables themselves. This was despite KNH having standing and performing contracts with suppliers for the same items. This was despite the fact that KNH is a very specialized healthcare facility and some of the items are customized specifically for KNH. This would later lead to delivery of substandard items in the hospital. Medics complained. It was directed that no one should question anything and the consumables would later be delivered and certified with no queries. The inspection committees were changed and replaced with inexperienced officers who would do whatever the management says even in glaring ignorance and noncompliance to specifications. Most of the items would be overpriced. No one was supposed to query anything. The head of procurement made the office of the warehouse vacant so that he could control all the logistics and inventory with no queries. It has been established that this was more than met the eye. In the height of covid-19, some items would be dispatched from Kemsa, in pretense that they were to be delivered to KNH. Most of these items would find their way to Ruiru/Kiambu where Lorries would be offloaded and items sold by the cartel. This was for surgical consumables and Covid-19 consumables including vaccines, some of whom were donations from all over the world. Mr. Miring’u led the cartel that made sure that the items were safely delivered, sold, money collected and distributed to all the stakeholders appropriately, including some KEMSA and KNH staff. To make sure that he was in control of everything, John, during his tenure, was acting as the Director Procurement and the Manager, warehouse and logistics at the same time (simultaneously). This happened as the hospital management watched and Okayed it all. At this time, all the experienced and qualified officers who would hold the offices were intimidated threatened, and others even demoted to operational duties. This happened since power and money had completely corrupted the minds of those in power. They compromised EACC and PPRA officers and now we can confidently expose the officers who have been covering these issues from both EACC and PPRA. Impunity in Management and HR. These offices have been very interesting for the last two years and counting. Issues of breaking of law, abuse of office, compromised management, and embezzlement of funds have been the highlights. In procurement and finance dpts, some officers have been promoted to the level managers. These positions were established in the new structure. The Manager position in those departments has many mandatory requirements that any officer should have to qualify the position. Some of these include: H old a master’s degree in the field, satisfy chapter 6 of the constitution and that the positions are competitive , the candidate must be subjected to competitive, fair interviews. We have established that some officers in both finance and procurement have been given the positions in clear ignorance of the requirements. Some of these officers don’t have master’s degrees and also don’t satisfy chapter 6 of the constitution on integrity. Some of these officers include Mr. John Miring’u of procurement. John doesn’t possess a masters degree and recently has been the talk of town after he was involved in all scandals in KNH when he was left to act as the director procurement. This brought a lot of public outcry after his juniors, suppliers and colleagues complained of how he has been mistreating them and abusing the office by demanding for sexual favours alongside kickbacks. This has warranted him the title of the undisputed KNH Woman eater. The Akuku danger that there ever was. His main mistress in KNH continues to RULE and SLAY. None of anyone’s business anyway just like the KNH waititu always says. We have evidence that he has been lobbying to be promoted after he was shamelessly removed from the acting capacity as the head of procurement due to lack of professionalism and abuse of office. Its known that he doesn’t have papers and has been canvassing through politicians who have now abandoned him. The promotion has been given (see attached letters). Others include Mr Twitty of finance. We challenge the HR director to prove with evidence that interviews were done and how they emerged as successful and that the two said officers have master’s degrees. This is completely out of order and HR should by all means be compelled to follow the law in its operations. The HR department operates in complete ignorance of the law. What happened to Mr. Mbui who was the senior most officer in the department. Just by being firm and declining the CEO’s request, the poor officer was embarrassed and removed from the office. He now operates as an outsider, misplaced IDP who has nothing to do in the hospital. Procurement Activities The CEO has been micromanaging these activities for the longest time. Through intimidation, threats and demotions of the officers who seem to be independent minded and firm in their decisions and operations. Some of the senior officers, through the office of the director procurement, have now been threatened that they will be sent to the ministry to rot there (to quote the words used). It has been established that, for the last 2-3years, specific companies have been doing business in KNH. These companies supply exaggerated prices and compromise their quality. This is because the management has been covering them and “eating” with them. The office of the head of procurement appears very confused and lacking proper leadership. Reshuffles are done every day and officers move according to their “cooperation”. Previously, the head of procurement has been changing evaluation reports and awarding tenders to much overpriced suppliers without a single verifiable justification through creation of artificial emergencies. These suppliers include Setlife Company that supplied items totaling to over 100M some through direct procurements whose justifications were fake.   The professional opinion for supply of diapers in tender was changed to give the company unrealistic quantities and values for the items awarded to the company. The owner has been running up and down the hospital influencing users to sign orders and request for unrealistic quantities. The users realize the mistake very late after pocketing some thousands from the supplier. Recently, the office of the head of procurement has been giving quotations and restricted tenders to only those suppliers who give kickbacks in advance. If a supplier fails to entice with kickbacks, they are removed from the list of approved suppliers for specific quotations and restricted tenders that have big values. These suppliers are known and will soon be exposed in a dossier that we will send to the authorities for investigations. Some of the companies excessively supplied gloves, gowns, sanitizers, diapers, lab items and others awarded contracts in Othaya. These companies were given variations against the law with exploitation and abuse of direct procurement methods so as to ensure that only those specific companies supplied the items contrary to the provisions of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 and its regulations 2020. Officers who try to question and comment on the issues are threatened and demoted. Sometimes even removed from offices they hold so they can feel unwanted and worthless in an effort to coerce them to resign. Expiries- Stocks worth 49 Million In the Lab consumables section have expired. These are stocks that were overbought in the hospital through the office of the head of procurement. Records in the hospital have been altered to give a lesser figure of around 9M. The correct value of the expiries is 49M most of which are for placement contracts that were bought in excess so as to increase the cut for the officers. These were done blindly and gluttonously without minding the interests of the hospital and the public finance provisions and all this is being swept under the carpet to protect the management. View document View document