The National Assembly's Public Investment Committee on Governance and Education on Wednesday affirmed its decision to ban a construction company from securing future public contracts.
According to the committee, the company should not be awarded any public contract after it was accused of breach of a previous contract to undertake various construction works at the Kenya School of TVET.
Led by Committee Chairperson and Bumula MP Jack Wamboka, Parliament reiterated its decision which had been contested by the company.
The company through the Clerk of the National Assembly tabled the petition, requesting for a second chance to table more documentary evidence.
However, the Committee declined citing that they had visited the site in question and verified that the works were yet to be completed as pointed out by the Auditor General.
“As part of the follow-up on the matter, today the Committee undertook an inspection visit to the Kenya School of TVET to verify the completion of the awarded project comprising of two workshops at a contract value of Ksh 53,421,480 which was carried out since 2012,” explained Parliament.
They added that the visit offered more grounds for their decision as the project was stated to be poorly constructed and was yet to be completed despite its commencement in 2012.
Additionally, the contractor is stated to have received 98 per cent advance payment for the project which was not handed over yet.
“The developer breached the law, he bid for the works and was awarded. He signed it and in the middle of executing the contract claimed that they were omissions.
“It is unprofessional for the contractor not to conduct due diligence before commencing works”, observed Rebecca Tonkei, the Narok Member of Parliament.
This comes after a Kenyan company was in 2023 banned by the African Development Bank Group (AFDB) for 15 months after being accused of fraud.
The ban came into effect in September 2023, with the firm not being eligible for funding from the AFDB until the disbarment was lifted.
