How KNH Lost Ksh30 Million Tax Payers Money To Rogue Suppliers -

As concerns of the quality of health services offered at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) increase by the day, it has now emerged that the hospital lost at least Ksh30 million to rogue suppliers.

Reports indicate that the biggest referral hospital in the country got into a contract with three different companies —- Glotex Medical Kenya Ltd, High Voltage Communication Ltd and Microtec Office Supplies — which later failed to deliver, despite receiving down payments.

The Daily Nation reports that KNH got into a contract with Glotex Medical Kenya Ltd in 2003 and made payments of up to Ksh13,727,655 for the supply of nuclear medicine, equipment and accessories. However, to date, the company is yet to deliver.

For 16 years now, KNH’s management has been chasing the firm for a refund but has not been successful.

Read: Woman Who Was Denied Treatment At KNH For Failing To Pay Ksh1950 Dies

What is more shocking is that the Registrar of companies recently found out that the firm is not registered and therefore it is not possible to institute legal action against a non-existing entity. This was revealed in the documents of an audit report for the financial year 2017/2018 currently before the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee.

In an attempt to recover the money, KNH, in a letter dated May 13, asked the National Bank of Kenya to furnish them with signatories to the account held by Glotex and name of the person who cashed the cheque to enable it recover the money. Unfortunately, the request was not granted.

In 2001, KNH entered into a contract with High Voltage Communication Ltd for the supply, delivery and installation of submersible pumping equipment into helipad borehole and deflouridation plants for boreholes at helipad and laundry.

To seal the deal, the management made an advance payment of Ksh15,792,611 but the company failed to complete the work which led to a dispute between the parties.

Later, the matter was referred to arbitration as was provided in the contract. After years of negotiations, KNH is said to have been awarded Ksh14,876,645 in November 2012 but the firm is yet to pay the money to date.

Reports indicate that on May 13, KNH wrote a letter to the anti-graft commission seeking an update on investigations into the matter but is yet to get any feedback.

In the third contract, KNH paid Ksh2,213,309 to Microtec Office Supplies for delivery and installation of microfilm equipment and to microfilm inactive medical records.

Kahawa Tungu understands that despite the money representing about 60 per cent of the service amount, the firm didn’t complete the work as only 30 per cent of the task was done.

Hopes that the there was a possibility of recovering the tax payer’s money were recently shut after KNH acting chief executive Evanson Kamuri revealed that the three firms’ files “had gone missing” from the registrar of companies.

“It is within our knowledge that the cited companies’ files have gone missing from the Registrar of Companies electronic database after application for an official search of the same. The hospital is following on the signatories to the accounts so as to recover the amounts advanced due to breach of contract,” Dr Kamuri said in a letter dated May 14.

This is despite efforts by the hospital to recover the money from the said banks proving futile.

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