Men behind NHIF hospital saga blame rivals for hitches

 

NHIF Building in Nairobi's Upper Hill on March 29, 2012. Photo/Billy Mutai 

By VICTOR JUMA

In Summary

• Proprietors of Baseline Architects and Ujenzi Consultants say private hospitals are lobbying to have Sh23 billion referral facility abandoned.
• A brief presented to Parliament by NHIF chief executive officer, Simon ole Kirgotty, suggested the consultants were hired by former CEO Ibrahim Hussein without the board’s approval.
• The two firms have a long history of dealings with NHIF. For the proposed medical centre project, Ujenzi has been paid Sh185.6 million separately and another Sh228.4 million jointly with Baseline Architects.

Private consultants at the heart of a Sh4.7 billion claim against the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) for a dubious referral hospital project in Karen have defended their contracts as being above board.

Proprietors of Baseline Architects and Ujenzi Consultants said the bad press surrounding the project was part of a scheme by private health facilities to block NHIF from entering their perceived turf.

“We have no problem with our client (NHIF). Private healthcare interests stand to lose a lot from the proposed medical centre and that is why they are fighting it through their proxies in government,” said Baseline Architects owner Morris Gitonga Njue.

Rebman Ambalo Malala, a quantity surveyor and the owner of Ujenzi Consultants, said the contracts for the referral hospital were properly commissioned.

“We were properly commissioned,” Mr Malala said, declining to comment further on the matter. NHIF has paid out more than Sh1.5 billion to consultants, engineers, and lawyers engaged in the referral hospital project conceived 11 years ago.

The fund is at a crossroads on whether to continue with the Sh22.6 billion project, which has continued being pushed by the Ministry of Health despite its rejection by the Treasury.

(Read: How power brokers plotted to fleece billions from NHIF)

A brief presented to Parliament by NHIF chief executive officer, Simon ole Kirgotty, suggested the consultants were hired by former CEO Ibrahim Hussein without the board’s approval.

The two firms have a long history of dealings with NHIF. Ujenzi, for instance, undertook quantity survey work for the construction of the fund’s headquarters in Upper Hill.

It was also involved in the construction of NHIF’s storeyed car park whose cost was inflated by 337 per cent to Sh3.97 billion, according to an official audit.

For the proposed medical centre project, Ujenzi has been paid Sh185.6 million separately and another Sh228.4 million jointly with Baseline Architects.

Mr Malala currently lives in Karen Plains in a house that was at one time valued at Sh60 million by the contractors. He also has a mixed development of residential and commercial property in Karen. He is also said to own substantial parcels of land in Narok by people familiar with his assets.

Mr Njue started dealing with NHIF around 2002 when the saga surrounding the proposed medical centre began. His firm, Baseline Architects, was paid Sh162 million separately and another Sh250.1 million jointly with Ujenzi and PKF Consulting.

The former civil servant has a 99.98 per cent stake in Baseline, with Mercy Gitonga and Lewis Muturi each owning 0.006 per cent of the company.

Registration details list other Baseline directors as Timothy Wanjohi and Donnie Otieno. The claim of Sh4.7 billion by the consortium is to be verified by the Ministry of Public Works where Mr Njue previously worked as an architect.