KEMSA Annual Stock-Take Comes To An End With Strategic Partners Overseeing The Process

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul, 9 – The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) has today concluded the ten-day annual stock take which attracted a host of strategic partners to oversee the critical exercise.

The exercise which saw KEMSA temporarily suspending regular sales and warehouse operations, brought together representatives from Global Fund, USAID Kenya East Africa, Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNICEF, National Council for Persons with Disability, Ministry of Health, National Vaccines and Immunisation Programme, National Treasury, AMREF Health Africa and Office of the Auditor-General.

KEMSA CEO Ms. Terry Ramadhani, during the closure of the stock, explained that the aim of stock holding process was to confirm that it is aligned to the government regulations and best practices and the Finance Departments Standard Operating Procedures.

She noted that the Finance Department had prepared an elaborate plan to ensure that the counting process is able to accurately capture important detail of the stocks for proper valuation.

“This exercise has ended and from the data collected we should be able to reconcile the electronic records (system ERP) quantities and the physical stocks in all the KEMSA warehouses,” she averred.

The CEO pointed out that the activity was undertaken jointly by staff from various departments in a bid to conduct the process in a fast and transparent manner.

“By having different departments take part in the exercise we were able to drastically reduce time taken from three weeks down to10 days.”

Describing the stock-take as an integral management process, Ms. Ramadhani said the exercise will be used for the Authority’s annual stock valuation reporting to assist in establishing the value of the usable stocks while separating it from expired, damaged and obsolete inventory in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

“A stock-taking exercise is a critical part of business management and is even more important for an organisation like KEMSA, which holds physical inventory valued at more than Kshs. 16 billion annually. We are taking this exercise seriously knowing it will help us to physically identify and quantify existing stock levels, verify the stock condition and generally ensure that we do not have an unexplained variance between our system records and the inventory in our warehouses,” she said.

The exercise is part of ongoing efforts to accelerate the execution of a three-pronged KEMSA transformation strategy, which focuses on driving operational excellence, enhancing customer experience and repositioning the organisation.

All reported variances will be addressed by a committee appointed by the CEO and the bulk pickers were encouraged to ensure accountability and integrity in providing reasons for historical variances.

Further, she urged the teams on the need for continuous improvement by sticking to the timelines and turning around the process in the shortest time possible.