The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) has partnered with the Kaizen Institute to implement a framework for improving accountability and follow-up after years of loss.
In a statement on Tuesday, November 22, KEMSA CEO Terry Ramadhani indicated that the new strategy will be instrumental in evaluating the various projects that the organization undertakes.
“The KEMSA team has developed an ‘Obeya’ that will provide a clear framework for follow-up and measuring the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and projects,” read the statement from Ramadhani in part.
Since she was appointed the KEMSA CEO in early 2022, Ramadhani has been on a transformational journey as she seeks to restore public trust in the authority.
“It is exciting to continue embarking on the implementation of KEMSA’s strategic plans on the journey toward transformation,” Ramadhani noted in a statement.
The CEO noted that with the Obeya strategy, the organization has come up with a daily accountability board that it will use to track the different initiatives of the Steering Committee members.
“The Obeya will be driven by a Steering Committee made up of the Directors and Heads of Key Departments to drive accountability and follow-up,” noted Ramadhani.
She explained that ‘Obeya’ is a Japanese word that means ‘war room’ and is used in this context to provide leaders of organization’s departments a shared platform to help focus on big-picture issues in strategic initiatives.
Furthermore, Obeya is a method of communication, cross-functional cooperation, and decision-making by specifying the space, time, and visual organization of information effectively providing organizations with a control centre for their activities.
KEMSA has been on the public radar for scandals involving the misappropriation of funds.
In March 2022, the UN-backed Global Fund revealed that 908,000 mosquito nets, 1.1 million condoms and tuberculosis drugs worth Ksh10 million had disappeared from a KEMSA warehouse.
Furthermore, the then-acting CEO John Kabuchi told the National Assembly Health committee that the country was likely to lose Ksh1.5 billion in pandemic-related stock that was held at KEMSA stores as the stock was expired, not sellable, or had a short shelf life.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE