MPs halt Sh6bn for leased medical equipment plan

Parliament has proposed that allocation to the Managed Services Equipment (MES) and the Level Five hospitals be stopped pending audit.

The Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) said the MES, which the Treasury allocated Sh6.2 billion in Budget estimates, has been plagued with many challenges ranging from a lack of personnel to wrong equipment delivered to some of the hospitals.

The committee further said it was concerned that despite conditional budgetary allocations to counties over a number of years to enhance service delivery, the hospitals still offer substandard services.

“It was posited that no allocation on the conditional grants should be approved until proper audit is carried out to ascertain utilisation and impact of these funds over the last four years,” said the BAC in its recommendations tabled in the House.

The proposal by the committee comes even as the Health ministry told Parliament that it did not object to working with counties that wished to transfer any of their functions to the national government.

The Ministry was responding to the departmental Committee on Health, which had received a petition by the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union to have the 11 county hospitals reverted to the national government.