Caption: President Uhuru promised the youth jobs and opportunities but gave them air.
Dear Cyprian,
I want to thank you for the wonderful work you are doing exposing the Rot that is going on in our country.
I wish to inform the public that there is a loophole in procurement that individuals, companies and cartels are exploiting to win tenders.
They have been stealing our CVs and certificates for the purpose of winning tenders. These peoples do not pay a cent in PAYE, NHIF and NSSF, yet they are awarded millions on the sweat of poor unemployed Kenyans.
The briefcase companies do not even rent offices and maintain employees, yet they get to keep almost 100% of the money they get from tenders. The CVS are harvested from Internet job postings and newspaper adverts. Sometimes an influential person can approach some youth and ask them for their CV pretending to know of a Job opening, but they end up in tenders.
A lot of the CVs end up in tenders without prior consent of the person. They are tailored with false experience to meet the tender requirements. If they can’t get the certificates they need they will tailor one and write a CV for it in River Road. Most of the Procurement entities cannot check the authenticity of the employees.
As you already know, KRA will give you a tax compliance certificate even if you do nil returns. You can also get an NHIF and NSSF compliance certificate when paying for the directors only. These compliance certificates do not include the number of employees or years of contribution. Even if they did they could be easily photoshopped so that the tender is won.
When the Job is awarded the look for cheap sub-contractors who are underpaid, so they do a poor job. This leads to the perception that the Kenyan education system is a failure when it is not.
The Government needs to change the way Employees are verified for tenders. First, we need to have a live system from KRA, NHIF and NSSF listing the companies, employees and period of contributions. Second, we need a new law to demand that the employee id number, NHIF, NSSF and Pin number be included in the tender document and verified online. Third procuring entities should publish the names of employees or workers who will work in a particular tender. No outside people should work on the tender awarded. IDs should be checked and verified for the project to continue.
Let’s come together to end this loophole. We as Kenyans have suffered through unemployment/underemployment. People are languishing in their parents home, yet they send their CVs everywhere. Good businesses who pay their statutory deductions are closing down leading to job losses and the government is lacking money all because of this open loophole. If possible, we need to revisit the past awarded tenders and get information about the employees that were used.
We need to start exposing these people because they are living in luxury on our sweat and tears. We need to sue these companies for fraud and get awarded compensations as we have suffered economically, emotionally and physiologically. Some people have committed suicide because they thought they were useless. Educational institutions are being closed down because everybody thinks that their certificates are worthless. Kenyan workers have been branded worthless because of this fraud and foreigners are taking over unjustly.
Cyprian Nyakundi is a Kenyan-based blogger who has an interest in politics, governance, corporate-fraud and human-interest stories. Kindly drop me a note if you feel aggrieved on any matter that you would want to be highlighted. WhatsApp: +254710280973 Email : [email protected], or [email protected], [email protected]
