News doing rounds, peddled by a section of the media, based on the ‘Global Fund Grants in the Republic of Kenya Audit Report’ that there was theft of 908,000 mosquito nets, tuberculosis drugs worth KSH 10 million and 1.1 million condoms, is simply untrue. This is the message The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) board wants you to take home.
Nevertheless, in the statement released by its board yesterday, KEMSA did admit there were supply chain flaws. “It also found that improvement is needed in financial management and controls for better accountability, and better absorption and utilization of investments such as the C19RM funds.”
In a bid to reassure and draw the public’s trust in the authority, part of the statement read, “To ensure accountability, the board has in the past ten months embraced information technology systems and is actively pursuing the end to end integration and rolled out the award-winning KEMSA Electronic Proof of Deliveries or e-POD App, that keeps track of deliveries to primary health facilities.”