Kenya saves Sh8bn in Standard One pupils laptop job

What you need to know:

Education Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi announced last week that Olive Telecommunications of India had won the tender to supply the laptops.
Olive beat Hewlett-Packard and Haier which had also been shortlisted to supply the gadgets.
The tender has faced hurdles with the first bidding rejected because Olive, the lowest bidder, had quoted Sh32 billion against a budget of Sh12 billion.

The award of the Sh25 billion tender for laptops has raised hopes that Class One pupils will start using the gadgets in May, barring petitions from losing bidders.

Education Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi announced last week that Olive Telecommunications of India had won the tender to supply the laptops despite misgivings that the company was not a manufacturer of computer hardware.

Olive beat Hewlett-Packard and Haier which had also been shortlisted to supply the gadgets. The tender has faced hurdles with the first bidding rejected because Olive, the lowest bidder, had quoted Sh32 billion against a budget of Sh12 billion. Olive is in partnership with Telkom Kenya.

“The Government has saved about Sh8 billion compared to the previous cancelled bid. This saving is attributed to the application of the Specially Permitted Procurement Procedure which allowed for competitive negotiations,” Prof Kaimenyi said.

The Jubilee government is seeking to buy 1.3 million laptops for each Standard One pupil as part of the pledge it made to the electorate during last year’s polls.

The tender will also see Olive supply 20,637 laptops for teachers, 20,637 printers and an equivalent number of projectors. The items will be supplied in phases with the first batch expected in April.

Competitive negotiations

In a procurement notice published last year, the government had restricted the competition to device manufacturers, technically referred to as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).

Two weeks ago Olive’s rivals said the firm does not qualify as an OEM.

Olive Telecommunications is alleged to contract Chinese manufacturers to make electronic devices, including tablets and smartphones, under its brand name or those of its customers such as mobile telecoms carriers.

On Friday, Mr Kaimenyi said no procurement rules were violated as the government relied on section 92 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act after engaging the academia and ICT experts on how to bring down the cost of devices.

“The ministry obtained the approval of Public Procurement Oversight Authority to use the Specially Permitted Procurement Procedure allowing competitive negotiations which is a recognised procurement practice globally,” Prof Kaimenyi said.