MaurineTheuri
Member
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is under fire for allegedly contracting a blacklisted company to distribute HIV and tuberculosis drugs in Kenya.
The US government agency is said to have rejected the services of Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) and awarded the contract for distribution of the life-saving drugs to a privately-owned American company called Chemonics.
The National Assembly Health Committee has raised questions over the award of the contract to Chemonics, which was blacklisted in Nigeria for involvement in financial fraud.
“We need to defend this country from manipulation. The ministry has told us that USAID is reluctant to meet them over the change of contractor to distribute ARVs. We have information that the company engaged by USAID to distribute ARVs has been accused of corruption in Nigeria due to neglect of staff in review of invoices,” said MP Joshua Kutuny, the vice-chairperson of the committee.
The Health Ministry said Kemsa had earlier been marked to distribute the medicines around the country on behalf of USAID but the agency backtracked and opted for Chemonics.
Chemonics was blacklisted in Nigeria after it emerged that it hired Zenith Carex as a sub-contractor, which defrauded grant programs of $3 million by systematically inflating invoices for distributing commodities to warehouses and health facilities.
A probe done by Global Fund established that Chemonics approved and paid Zenith’s fraudulent invoices for over two years.