The chief editor of this site has received damning information about the Privatization Commission of Kenya.
For a start, the Privatization Commission is a corporate body established under Section 3 of the Privatization Act (2005). Its mandate is to is to formulate, manage and implement Kenya’s Privatization Programme. The Programme consists of the list of investments and assets approved for privatization under the Privatization Act.
The govt agency under Executive Director Joseph K. Koskey has a budget of nearly a billion shillings that the top managers have deemed fit to misappropriate through overpriced tenders.
A whistleblower inside the parastatal blew the lid on the award of Tender No. PC/015/2018-2019 for the supply, implementation and commissioning of Electronic Document Management System (EDMS).
The tender was awarded to Coseke Kenya Limited at a cost of Sh7,957,600 over and above the approved commission budget of Sh2,000,000.
Furthermore, both the requisition from user department (ICT) and the annual procurement plan id not indicate whether the project would be a multi-year or phased contrary to section 53(7) and (8) of Public Procurement and Disposal (PPAD) Act 2015.
The inflation of cost by Sh5,957,600 is open theft.
Chronology of the loot
The EDMS tender was advertised on 4th December 2018 with a submission deadline set for two weeks later.
Six firms submitted their bids which included both the technical and financial proposals which were opened on the same day, 18th December 2018.
The firms that bid included M/s Coseke (K) Limited (Bidder 1), M/s Plan & Trend E.A Ltd (Bidder 2), M/s Surestep Systems & Solutions (Bidder 3), M/s Laser Infrastructure & Technology Solutions Ltd (LASER) (Bidder 5), MFI Document Solutions Limited (Bidder 5) and M/s Computer Revolution Africa Group (Bidder 6)
In the technical evaluation, bidders 2 and 4 were disqualified for failure to fulfill the mandatory requirement one of which was to have certificate of accreditation from the ICT Authority.
The second stage of the evaluation which was looking at the technical specification of the firms proposals knocked out Surestep Systems & Solutions for a non-responsive tender. The firm’s Dynamics Navision 2018 ERP systems and the one it presented during the demo to the commission, namely, Sharepoint differed.
Bidder 5, MFI Document Solutions Limited was also disqualified in this stage for proposing a system that did not ‘seamlessly integrate with the core business system’ among other shortfalls such as low storage capacity, lack of thumbnail support on image documents, lack of LDAP support capabilities, low end user support and lack of support for users to request to change of deadlines among others.
Two firms, Coseke (K) Limited and Computer Revolution Africa Group battled it out for the final spot. Coseke emerged the winner of the 95.5 marks.
“Bidder 6 did not attain the requisite pass mark of 75 marks having scored an average of 69.2 marks and therefore the firm was not progressed to next stage of financial evaluation as per the requirements of the tender document (Appendix to instructions to tenderers Clause 2.22.1). Further to point 1 above, only firm was responsive to the technical tender requirements namely, M/s Coseke (K) Ltd having scored an average of 95.5 marks”, the tender document stated.
The evaluators further stated, “Based on the evaluation results and the responsiveness of the Commission’s tender document, the Committee recommended that the firm, M/s Coseke (K) Lid be considered for award at their financial bid of Kshs. 7,957,600.00 Inclusive of VAT for supply, implementation and commissioning of EDMS as specified”.
Sh7,957,600 was way above the Sh2,000,000 budget by the commission. Nonetheless, tender evaluation committee members Flora Muthaura, Shadrack Oriaro, Bessie Atieno and Sylvester Kamau who is the procurement manager, signed on it.
Mr Sylvester even goes further to swear on the section titled, ‘Head of procurement’s professional opinion’, that “The evaluation was done in accordance with procedure and the most responsive & lowest evaluated bidder, M/s. Coseke (K) Limited is recommended for award of order for the tender for supply, implementation and commissioning of the EDMS at a total cost of Kshs. 7,957,600.00 Inclusive of VAT, a recommendation I concur with”
This contradicts the statement on the same tender document that he has signed that stated, “There is a budget for supply, implementation and commissioning of the EDM: under budget code 3200061 with an amount of Kshs. 2,000,000.00 from which this procurement will be funded from”.
The tender evaluation was undertaken without the input of the Legal Affairs Officer Ms Maureen Saina whom the minutes’ capture as having been on a sick leave.
A second tender to loot
The Tender for the design installation, commissioning, support and Integration of Enterprise Resource Planning and Office 365 System was awarded to M/S Attain Enterprises Solutions Ltd at a total cost of Kshs. 16,746,880.56.
This is despite the estimated cost of Ksh. 9,000,000.00 as per the 2018-2019 annual procurement plan and approved budget.
The requisition was approved by the CEO ON 18th February 2019 upon confirmation of availability of funds by the Finance department.
The project was overpriced by Sh7,746,880.56.
The ‘Concerned Managers’, a group of whistleblowers at the Privatization Commission, also raised an issue.
“This tender was budgeted for Ksh. 8,728,000.00 but was awarded for Ksh. 16,746,880.56 to M/s Attain Enterprises Solutions Ltd inflating the cost by Ksh. 8,018,880.56. It is unfortunate that the second tender the professional opinion was that the concerned department to budget for the difference after awarding to cater for the shortfall. “a case of award then budget” in blatant violation of the PPADA 2015, its regulations of 2006 and PFM Act”, the stated in their letter.
In all these scandal, the Privatization Commission’s CEO Joseph K. Koskey lied to the Auditor General through a letter dated 17th March 2021 where the facts are hidden.
The Privatization Commission has since adopted Commissioners, Dr Paul Otuoma as Chairman, Treasury CS Amb Ukur Yatani, Attorney General Paul Kariuki, Joseph Koskey, Beatrice Gathirwa, John Joseph Tito, and Sharon Irungu-Asiyo.
