Tender issued to end drugs crisis

• Move comes amid reports of serious shortage of medicines at public hospitals

A tender for the supply of drugs to dispensaries and health centres countrywide has been released.

The procurement notice, issued by the Public Health and Sanitation ministry’s rural health project, comes in the wake of reports of a serious shortage of drugs at public health institutions.

According to the project’s manager D. Waititu, interested eligible bidders have been asked to obtain bidding documents from their offices at Afya House ADB Block (prefabricated) in Nairobi.

“A complete set of bidding documents may be purchased by interested bidders on the submission of a written application upon payment of a non-refundable fee of Sh5,000 or its equivalent in freely convertible currency to the ministry’s cashier, Afya House, second floor, room 218,” the notice says.

In the notice, the ministry says bids must be delivered to the ADB office on or before 10am on March 24 and should be accompanied by a security bid of Sh500,000 or its equivalent in any freely convertible currency.

“The bid security shall be in the form of a bank guarantee or banker’s cheque and must be from a reputable bank,” the notice added.

Last week, the Treasury released Sh1.2 billion for the purchase of drugs and other medical supplies while a further Sh550 million was expected to be released this week.

Efforts by the Nation to contact the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency were futile as the secretary said the chief executive, Dr John Munyu, was held up in a day- long meeting.

Meanwhile, Kenya expects to receive Sh6.84 billion from the Global Fund to assist in the fight against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

Public Health minister Beth Mugo said the money was in addition to the grants from the UN agency to fight the three major killer diseases.

“I would like to reassure Kenyans that funding from the Global Fund to this country has not ceased but continues as usual. However, (in order to keep on accessing funding) we need to accelerate implementation of the agreed programmes as well as timely accounting for the funds which have been disbursed,” Mrs Mugo said.