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Hillary Mageka @hillarymageka

The Ministry of Health may have ignored Attorney General’s advice on signing of the controversial Sh63 billion Managed Equipment Services (MES) under the medical leasing scheme.

A senate ad hoc committee probing the multi-billion-shilling  contracts yesterday heard that the ministry then held by Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, entered into contracts with five global companies without the consent of the state law office.

They included M/s General Electric East Africa Services Limited, Esteem Industries Inc, Philips Medical Systems, Bellco SrL and Shenzhen Mindray Bio-medical Electronic Company Limited.

Documents tabled before the committee showed that while the AG’s office gave advisory confirming  authority of the ministry and the principal secretary to go ahead and execute the MES contracts on behalf of the government, the ministry was asked to resolve outstanding issues relating to the contracts before ceremonial signing event on February 6, 2015.

Appearing before the committee chaired by Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo yesterday, Attorney General Kihara Kariuki, Solicitor General Kennedy Ogeto and State Counsel Sharon Irungu said the parties had undertaken to continue with negotiations in a bid to agree on the final texts of the said contracts after the ceremonial signature.

“We maintained there were outstanding issues in respect of the contracts and that  the signing be done only for ceremonial purposes,” Ogeto told the senators.

“This office was not involved in the additional and auxiliary contracts related to MES such as funders direct agreement, subtracts and only came to learn of them post facto,” he added.

The Solicitor General, however, said the fact that the MES contract were still at their nascent stages of the negotiations, they could not be the final contractors to be implemented.

On the MES contract, the Kihara disclosed his office involvement was minimal in as far as the negotiations and initial review of the contracts. 

Review contract

He said the ministry engaged services of external lawyers  who assisted the ministry in preparing tender documents and in negotiating, reviewing and finalising the MES contracts.

But Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula, the committee deputy chair, asked why the AG did not advise the ministry to have a ceremonial agreement with outstanding issues.

But Irungu said the signing was supposed to be for a mere expression of intension to contract. “We never received the copies of the texts that were signed during the ceremonial effect.”