Wednesday, 4 June, 2025
Hon Wangwe led Committee grill MTRH over irregular salary advances and inventory discrepancies
5th Floor Bunge Tower, Parliament Buildings. Tuesday 3rd June, 2025.
The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Social Services, Administration and Agriculture, chaired by Navakholo constituency MP Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe, today met with officials from Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), led by CEO Dr. Philip Kirwa, to scrutinize audit queries raised by the Auditor-General for the financial years 2019/2020 to 2023/2024.
A key issue raised was the irregular salary advances issued to medical interns, totalling Kshs. 930,000. The audit revealed that the advances were granted to interns who had been contracted for less than 12 months, in contravention of the hospital’s human resource policy. Notably, Kshs. 890,000 of the amount advanced had remained outstanding for more than a year, with no evidence of recovery efforts.
“The hospital might not recover the amount of Kshs. 930,000 advanced to interns,” the Auditor-General’s report cautioned, noting the impact on the integrity of the Kshs. 4.2 million total salary advance balance included in MTRH’s net debtors of Kshs. 1.3 billion as of June 2020.
In response, Dr. Kirwa clarified, “The interns are posted by the Ministry of Health, and due to delays in salary processing, we offer salary advances to support their upkeep. Most of these are recovered before the interns complete their terms. However, in rare cases where interns fail to clear procedurally, we pursue recovery through the Ministry and county governments.”
He assured the Committee that enhanced internal controls had since been put in place, especially at the clearance stage.
The Committee also flagged anomalies in the hospital’s inventory records, with the financial statements as of June 2020 reflecting a stock balance of Kshs. 356 million. However, auditors noted that expired drugs valued at Kshs. 4.5 million were included in the inventory, and some stocktake reports were unsigned.
“The accuracy of the inventory balance could not be confirmed,” the report noted.
Responding to this, MTRH management stated that the flagged drugs had not expired at the time of the stocktake and that the unsigned report from Nyayo Pharmacy was due to an oversight. “We have implemented stricter procedures to ensure full documentation in future stocktakes,” said Dr. Kirwa.
Committee members, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the explanations provided.
Vice-Chairperson Hon. Caleb Amisi questioned, “There’s something wrong, whether it’s people who were there before. Why don’t we call those who were responsible? This is pure theft.”
Hon. Jackson Kosgei added, “The way these responses have been presented is too casual for such serious matters.”
In his closing remarks, the chairperson Hon. Wangwe advised MTRH to convene a session with the Auditor-General’s office, along with their procurement and finance teams, to harmonize their responses and address the audit concerns more substantively.
“We want to give you time to sit down and come back with solid answers that can help us close these matters,” he said.