Revealed: You may need to pay Ksh.3M bribe to secure Ministry of Health tender

A staggering 88 per cent of health workers and 93.7 per cent of members of the public admit corruption and unethical conduct were widespread in the health sector.

This is according to a new report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) which looked at corrupt practices during the pre-tendering, tendering and post-tendering stages.

The report comes on the heels of at least two EACC surveys that ranked the Ministry of Health as the second most corrupt government ministry.

The report stated that securing a healthcare project in this country comes at a pretty sum; the average bribe to secure a contract is almost Ksh.400,000, and in some cases that price would be as high as Ksh.3 million.

The EACC report revealed that some individuals would part with 10 per cent of the project value, and that they most bribes are paid in cash.

At the pre-tendering stage, health staff identified manipulating of costs, favouritism and conflict of interest as the main forms of corruption and unethical conduct.

Three counties in particular featured prominently when it came to possible manipulation or inflation of costs.

Meru, Tharaka Nithi and Embu counties all had more projects within health departments that had been completed at costs well above the planned budget.

In the tendering phase, favouritism presented the most prevalent form of corruption across the tendering stages of invitation, opening, evaluation and award.

Making payment for substandard works and bribery were the most common forms of corruption in the post-tendering phase.

The survey targeted over 2,000 respondents that included hospital employees, members of the public, contractors, county experts and senior government officials drawn from 25 sampled counties across the country.