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Mercy Mwai @wangumarci

Suspended Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) CEO Jonah Manjari yesterday told members of a House committee that he did not know how companies that were awarded tenders worth Sh7.6 billion knew that the entity was in business.

 Manjari who appeared before the Public Investments Committee (PIC) was also unable to explain how some of the companies that were in existence for less than a year managed to get tenders just by walking to their offices.

 “I do not know how the companies got to know that Kemsa was in business. The only thing I know is that I received many emails from various suppliers who were interested,” he said.

 Manjari also admitted that the agency used direct procurement method by issuing commitment letters to suppliers before the procurement processes including price negotiations were done.

 He told the MPs that the decision to have the prices renegotiated later was because at that time there was an emergency, which they needed to address.

 Auditor General Nancy Gathungu had in a special audit indicted Manjari and the top management saying the procurement of the Covid-19 goods was irregular as it was done without a market survey contrary to Section (8) of Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, resulted in over pricing of the items by the suppliers leading to loss of public money.

 “All deliveries were done earlier before the negotiations of the process were done,” he said.