A controversy is brewing at the CS Fred Matiang'i-headed Interior Ministry over the award and quick cancellation of a Ksh6 billion food supplies tender.
The ministry, in May this year, awarded the tender to suppliers who are already on course with processing and supplying of the commodities to inmates and trainees at the Prisons Department.
In a recent development, which the successful bidders say came by surprise, the Interior ministry readvertised and subsequently cancelled the earlier award of the tenders.
Correctional Services Permanent Secretary Zeinab Hussein told Daily Nation the bid winners lost the award after the ministry noticed flaws and anomalies in the Ksh6 billion pending bills.
According to the PS, the cancellation of the tenders was also caused partly by the fact that the awarding was done before the preparation and approval of the Correctional Services Department budget and procurement process.
The ministry also identified ills in the awarding process, with PS Zeinab revealing that the bids were opened by the same people who were involved in the tender evaluation process. This, Zeinab held, is contrary to procurement and tendering regulations.
The PS says that some of the tenders awarded were irregularly amended to include the supply of building materials, yet these were not included in the original bids.
In some of the tenders that were awarded to supplies for the Nairobi region, PS Zeinab confirmed that the award documents had not been signed within the stipulated 14 days period in the event of no appeals on successful bidders.
"Being new in the department and having noted that the tender award documents had not been signed within the period required by the law, I had to establish why and also do an assessment of the integrity of the process before signing them," the PS told the daily.
A number of suppliers who won the tenders have decried the re-advertisement of the tenders saying they were already supplying various goods and were yet to be paid.
Some have accused the prisons department of being in a scheme to give fresh tender awards to "their favourite bidders."
The claims come at a time PS Zeinab has openly admitted that a letter by her department's manager, detailing the tender awards was erroneous.
