The 100 40-foot containers have been lying at the National Youth Service yard in Miritini/CFM
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 11 – The National Assembly Health Committee is on Friday expected to ascertain the existence of 100 40-foot container clinics that have been lying idle at the National Youth Service yard in Miritini, Mombasa County for six months after they were sourced from China.
This comes as the MPs continue to probe the alleged loss of Sh5 billion at the Ministry of Health.
This is after Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu stated that the internal auditor did not travel to Mombasa to verify the existence of the clinics.
Mailu stated that the auditor was supposed to verify every detail but never did this and drew his conclusion just by looking at papers.
The Sh5 billion was revealed missing in an internal Ministry audit for the 2015/2016 financial year but the Mailu insists that the funds are not missing and were simply unexplained.
The funds, it is claimed, were lost through double payment of goods, diversion of funds, and inordinate manipulation of Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS).
A total of Sh889 million meant for free maternity disbursement to the 47 county governments were diverted to purchase mobile medical clinics for urban slums.
The contractor was contracted to supply 100 portable medical clinics that have not been delivered months after the close of the financial year.
Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri stated that the distribution of the clinics stalled because of the push and pull with MPs on where they should be located in the constituencies.
According to the audit report, the contracted company did not meet statutory requirements to be awarded a government contract since it has not met requirements on the use of electronic tax register (ETR) receipts, tax compliance and PIN number.
At the close of the 2015/2016 financial year, the Ministry had a total of Sh2.4 billion in pending bills attributed to illegal overspending by the Ministry.
IFMIS was manipulated by the some Ministry officials to effect payment to two counties and 10 firms, money which was not intended to be paid to them according to the audit report.
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