Money Markets
EAC traders lobby to block foreign firms from tenders
Trucks queue at Malaba on the Kenya/Uganda border awaiting clearance. Traders within the Community want to be ring-fenced against multinationals for certain tenders. Photo/FILE
Posted Tuesday, February 9 2010 at 00:00
Opening up of the public tendering system is one of the issues that the European Union has been demanding in the ongoing EC– EAC economic partnership agreements negotiations.
“While we expect to borrow a lot from World Bank’s model which roots for an open tendering system, we will insist that tenders for items which can easily be procured from within the region be left to local traders,” said Mr Kiguta.
FACT BOX
The Kenyan Law (Public Procurement and Disposal Act) gives “(a) exclusive preference (in awarding publicly funded projects) to citizens of Kenya where – (i) the funding is 100 per cent from the Government of Kenya or a Kenyan body; and (ii) the amounts are below the prescribed threshold.”
Kenya is particularly under pressure to adopt a more open system that meet the international standards as other EAC members currently fall within the Least Developed Countries category which have been bargaining to protect their public tendering system from outsiders.
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