KenGen appeals Sh52bn tender award to firm accused of forgery
Mr Justice Weldon Korir. PHOTO | PAUL WAWERU
What you need to know:
KenGen has obtained a court order temporarily stopping the PPARB from awarding the lucrative tender to RentCo East Africa.
RentCo East Africa has been accused of using a false certificate of incorporation to support its bid for the deal.
The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has appealed in court the public procurement appeals body’s decision to award a Sh52 billion tender for supply of geothermal wellheads to a company accused of using forged documents to bag the deal.
KenGen has obtained a court order temporarily stopping the Public Procurement Administrative and Review Board (PPARB) from awarding the lucrative tender to RentCo East Africa which has been accused of using a false certificate of incorporation to support its bid for the deal.
The PPARB last month quashed KenGen’s decision to cancel the tender and ordered that the lucrative deal be awarded to RentCo which had partnered with Lantech Africa and Toshiba Corporation.
The PPARB threatened to involve the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Director of Public Prosecutions for possible arrest and trial of KenGen officials if RentCo was not awarded the deal within seven days of March 24 when the appeals board made its ruling.
But KenGen says it cancelled the tender after discovering irregularities in RentCo’s audited books of accounts, and that the firm had lied about Toshiba being part of its consortium.
KenGen holds that the PPARB did not have authority to hear RentCo’s appeal against cancellation as it was filed out of time.
“RentCo filed the request for review on March 4, 2016, more than four months after the tender was cancelled. RentCo’s request for review was hopelessly out of time and the PPARB had no jurisdiction to entertain it. RentCo submitted financial documents believed to have been falsified calling into question the award. The PPARB failed to consider this issue,” KenGen says in court filings.
The tender was to see the winner lease 50-megawatt geothermal wellhead units on behalf of KenGen and install them in the Ol Karia V plant.
KenGen now says that RentCo had also listed KenGen as the borrower for funds to be used in implementing the tender contrary to the tender rules which specified that the State-owned firm will not incur any liability from the deal.
RentCo East Africa won the tender one month after it was disqualified from participating in a separate contract for presenting forged documents and irregular financial statements.
Russian firm OJSC Power Machines last year sued KenGen for declaring RentCo the winners despite knowing that the firm had used forged documents in its bid for the tender.
The Russian firm also maintained that it had offered the lowest bid during tender proceedings. Power Machines had partnered with TransCentury and its subsidiary Civicon Limited.
Power Machines’ case was dismissed but KenGen went ahead to cancel the tender.
Justice Weldon Korir has allowed the two parties two weeks to file their respective responses. He will hear the matter on May 9.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
