International companies are engaged in vicious battles to control the multibillion tenders to supply electoral materials to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). The wars are so bad that they are threatening to derail the preparations for the August 9, 2022 General Election.
The multinational companies are all eyeing Ksh40 billion set aside by the electoral agency to facilitate the polls processes.
So far, the tender wars have escalated into court cases with some bidders castigating IEBC for failing to adhere to the Public Procurement Act.
In the latest setback, the Public Procurement Administrative Review halted the Ksh2.7 billion ballot papers printing tender that had been awarded to a Greek firm, Inform Lykos (Hellas) SA, on Thursday, October 28.
The order to stop the firm from printing ballot papers came just days after the High Court overturned the board’s cancellation of a lucrative tender for the purchase of ICT tools.
The battle for the lucrative tenders has seen one of the bidders file a complaint.
Shailesh Patel, trading as Africa Infrastructure Development Company, in his court papers complained that the tender was awarded unlawfully.
The aggrieved international firm is now pushing the tribunal looking into the matter to annul and set aside IEBC's verdict. Moreover, they have seeking an order for termination of the procurement process until all the issues are sorted out.
The tender being contested is a lucrative deal to supply of ballot papers, registration of voters, statutory election result declaration forms to be used in polling stations and election and referendum result declaration forms that runs for a period of three years.
“IEBC contravened Article 227(1) of the Constitution by commencing and conducting the procurement proceedings in a manner that is unfair, inequitable and uncompetitive by providing that no joint ventures would be allowed, which would otherwise have enabled bidders to augment their capacity and qualification," the firm stated.
The firm argued in their submission that IEBC clearly offended procurement rules by disclosing the reasons why other bidders were unsuccessful, instead of doing so privately. This is against procurement rules.
They also pointed fingers at the electoral agencies for failing to uphold the confidentiality of the procurement process.
The review board had canceled the tender on September 1 after finding that IEBC had not followed the law while shopping for a new ICT system.
The complaint was lodged by Risk Africa Innovates Limited.
Judge Jairus Ngaah who delivered the ruling quashed the decision after establishing that the board failed by awarding the tender to a company that had not been listed as a candidate.
“Since no proper application was before it for determination, the board assumed jurisdiction which it did not have and, at any rate, it was unreasonable to entertain a party, who was no more than a busy body in the purported request for review proceedings,” ruled Justice Ngaah.
The judgments and wrangles puts election preparation in limbo as IEBC has now been forced to wait till further decisions are made allowing them to proceed.
