Home » Media Centre » Blogs » Of Inflated Tenders and the Billions of Shillings of Cost to Kenyans
It is laudable that the government is finally taking steps to reduce the wage bill and while the outcome of the efforts remains to be seen, it would be great if concrete steps were alsotaken towards correcting government inefficiencies particularly when it comes to the tendering process.
Recently there have been a slew of reports on the inefficienciesin the tendering process and the resultant losses, for instance:
The Public Procurement Administration Review Board found that the laptop tender price had been inflated by 1.4 billion shillings:
“Initially Olive had quoted US $ 268,899,669 or Sh24,286,711,335/50, but when the tender was awarded, Education Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, announced a sum of US $ 284,899,669”
According to reports the laptop tender was a five stage process(1) Technical Evaluation (2) Financial Evaluation, (3) Best & Final Offer Negotiation, (4) Best & Final Offer Financial Opening and (5) Due Diligence stages. It is alarming that in none of these stages was the error caught. It leads to the question of whether the any of the bodies that were involved in the process are fit forthe purpose.
Then there’s the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Kenya’s biggest infrastructural project today and one in which Kenyan tax payers could lose billions if the inefficiencies continue:
“The total cost rose from the initial 220,921,502.08 quoted by the China and Bridge Corporation in its acceptance of the tender award letter dated July 2012 to the current 1.3 trillion” the Standard reported.
The paper further reported that Public Procurement Oversight Authority has been unsuccessful in its attempts to seek answersabout the discrepancies from the Ministry of Transport. This is aside from the fact that in the course of its investigations the National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee found thatthere are two companies registered under the name China Road and Bridge Corporation the Chinese one and Kenyan one.
There’s also the recently reported loss of the 4billion shillings from National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) fund to which Kenyans directly contribute a portion of their income.
According to the Auditor General NHIF incurred cost of the 3.9 billion shillings that cannot be justified after the tender for a multi storey parking lot was inflated from 9 million to 3.9 billion. Meanwhile NSSF made an investment in land which turns out is reserved land (something which one thinks should have been uncovered by a search at the lands office). Read the full story here.
The government response to the inefficacies is disappointing to say the least. Despite glaring discrepancies in the SGR tender process the President has declared that the SGR tender was above board and the project must go on. The Parliamentary Committee has said that it will censure Education CS Prof Jacob Kaimenyi, in response the Education CS has dismissed calls for him to resign over the scandal.
Unless these inefficiencies are corrected taxpayers will continue to lose billions.
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