Kenya Seed Board of Directors want the procurement office investigated for a legal lapse that saw several tenders cancelled by the Procurement Regulatory Authority.
Speaking to the press in Kitale yesterday, the tender committee members Nathaniel Tumu and William Kundu said that procurement regulatory committee cancelled tenders for the supply of seed maize treatment chemicals, made on November 7 last year.
The company was directed by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPRB) on February 15 to re-tender the Sh325 million tender after a petition was filed by a company that felt that the award of the legal tender was not fairly competitive.
PPRB in its verdict ruled that none of the six companies that had applied for the award of the tender had met the bidding requirements.
Kenya Seed Board’s Research Production & Marketing (RPM) Committee has stepped up its efforts in ensuring that the procurement department works within the laid down rules and regulations in the award of goods and services to the company.
According to Tumu, the procurement department should work within the laid down rules and procedures that guide procurement entities, should be left to work independently and have the objectives of ensuring value for money for the company in all procurement activities.
The board also read mischief in the move by the company to re-advertise the tender on March 21 this year with different reference numbers which they felt was aimed at locking out companies that had raised complains to the procurement authority
The March 21 tender advertisement for supply of maize seed treatment chemicals is referenced as KSC/T/ISMT/15/2018/2019 while the previous advertisement which was cancelled on February 15 had KCS/T/STC/12/2018/2019 as the reference number.
The public procurement law demands that tenders which have been cancelled by entities should bear the same initial reference number when being re-tendered.
“As decided in the past, all expenditure to be incurred and which is provided for in the budget must be approved by the Board before it is incurred subject to availability of funds,” said Kundu.
By Pauline Ikanda
