- The special audit team sampled 17 health facilities in 11 counties.
- A physical inspection carried out in September 2023 revealed that the equipment had been delivered to the respective hospitals.
Image: FILE
Medical equipment worth Sh555 million have been lying idle in health facilities in the North Rift after they were installed, a report of Auditor General Nancy Gathungu shows.
The report said the equipment were not in use due to various reasons such as hospitals lacking buildings and the required infrastructure while some of the facilities had broken down.
“This indicates that the project had implementation challenges and was not fully enhancing service delivery to citizens,” the report said.
The equipment were delivered to the facilities after Kenya and France signed a Financial Protocol of Euro 32,167,787 (Sh3.98 billion) on August 27, 2020, for the supply of medical gear and associated services to public health institutions in the country.
The funding was to cater for emergency response to fight COVID-19 (Euro15,510,493 equivalent to Sh1.92 billion) and to fight maternal and infant mortality (Euro16,657,294, equivalent to Sh2.06 billion).
The Sh2.6 billion was used to fund programmes to reduce maternal and infant mortalities in the North Rift region.
The strategy was to equip maternities for satellite hospitals around Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) to improve their maternal service delivery and subsequently decongest the facility and allow it to concentrate on referral services.
The project also involved pre-installation works at maternities and delivery theatres of the beneficiary hospitals, supply and installation of medical equipment, and user and technical training for staff.
Gathungu conducted the special audit after the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly requested a letter Ref: NA/DAASC/PAC/2023/106 dated April 26, 2023.
The special audit team sampled 17 health facilities in 11 counties.
A physical inspection carried out in September 2023 revealed that the equipment had been delivered to the respective hospitals.
Eight out of the 17 sampled hospitals had faulty equipment valued at Euro1,496,378.20 (Sh185.5 million).
The audit said some equipment had broken down immediately after installation.
“For instance, the incinerator supplied to the Kericho County Referral Hospital on November 19, 2021, worked for only six months and broke down.
"The hospital had reverted to using an old incinerator supplied in 2012. Further, the incinerator has never been serviced since installation. As a result, the objective of the equipment was not achieved,” the report stated.
The report further cited Kapkatet Sub-County Hospital where an oxygen plant valued at Euro166,075.38 (Sh20 million) was delivered on December 15, 2021.
“The equipment had been installed but had not been put to use since it required a 1,000 KVA transformer and the existing transformer was 315 KVA.
The hospital had made progress with the transformer having been installed in July 2023, awaiting connecting to the oxygen plant,” the report said.
It noted that power had not been connected to the oxygen plant, and the plant was not in use at the time of audit.