Governors extend MES contract by another three years

Council of Governors (COG) Chairman Martin Wambora at Senate Chambers, Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The Council of Governors has extended a seven-year contract of the Managed Equipment Services (MES) by another three years.

COG, through its chairman Governor Martin Wambora said they acknowledged the impact the equipment has had on health service delivery to Kenyans, prompting the resolve to extend the contract.

However, several factors form the conditions of the extension.

COG, in a statement Friday said that a joint multidisciplinary negotiating team between governors and the Health Ministry will determine the 3-year contract extension, that will be tackled on a contract-by-contract basis.

Other set conditions for the extension include:

• That the governors and Ministry of Health jointly agree on the composition and Terms of reference (TORS) for the contract implementation committees
• That the COG and Health Ministry teams jointly draft the addendums to the contracts and the MOUs between the Ministry and County governments.
• That the MES contractors deliver on all their obligations under each contract and address the negatives observed in the implementation of the contracts attributable to them and
• That the COG and Health Ministry shall review and consider modalities to compensate counties whose equipment was not delivered but fully paid for.

In September last year, it emerged that governors approved the Sh39 billion Managed Equipment Service (MES) project despite their insistence that they were not aware of the transactions.

The Standard reported that health executives from all the counties met with the Health Cabinet Secretary and signed a memorandum of understanding on the project.

Prior, a Senate health committee had released its report on MES and noted that the project that equipped 98 hospitals across the 47 counties was ‘a criminal enterprise’ meant to fleece Kenyans.