House probes award of Sh1.7bn ICT deal for Huduma centres
ICT Principal Secretary Victor Kyalo. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
Parliament has launched investigations into the award of a Sh1.7 billion ICT contract for the roll out of 45 Huduma centres in 41 counties, putting President Uhuru Kenyatta’s iconic project on the spot.
The National Assembly Public Accounts Committee Thursday put to task ICT Principal Secretary Victor Kyalo and his Public Service counterpart Lillian Omollo to explain how Linksoft Integrated Services and Verve KO Limited won the tenders.
The two companies are said to have initiated the tender and were later involved in designing technical specifications, ostensibly to win the tender.
Linksoft Intergraded Services was procured at a cost of Sh797 million to manage internal systems at Huduma centres while Verve was contracted at Sh987 million to establish the Huduma Kenya E-Enabling and cost tracking systems.
“Complaints we are receiving from the public are that the two vendors built the specifications and that the tendering was merely a cleansing process,” said Nicholas Gumbo who chairs the PAC.
Members of the watchdog committee noted that it was also curious that the consultancy fee involved was higher than the implementation fee at Sh533 million out of the total Sh850 million.
Both Linksoft and Verve are Oracle-based which is modular and easily intergrate-able with core government systems such as IFMIS and CRB.
“Why did the government have to procure the ICT systems through vendors instead of going directly to Oracle?” posed Mr Gumbo, who is also the MP for Rarieda.
Mr Kyalo said the evolution of systems started in a chaotic manner which in turn resulted in delays in the amalgamation and creation of a government enterprise architecture.
“The open tender process was necessitated by migration from Microsoft to Oracle system and we are now in advanced talks with Internet service providers, including Safaricom and Telekom Kenya, on an amalgamated platform this quarter,” he said.
To date, Sh1.9 billion has been expended on ICT systems at Huduma centres and e-Citizen platforms.
The establishment of Huduma centres was mooted in 2012 and was co-ordinated through the office of the Prime Minister.
Once the Huduma secretariat was established it took up the running of the project.
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