Watchdog cancels JKIA fast food tender

The search for a fast-food operator at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has run into tendering headwinds after the port manager was stopped from awarding the contract to a Kenyan firm.

The Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) said the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) erred in awarding the tender to Barintown Ltd, which runs the Hurlingham-based Slims Restaurants in Nairobi.

“The action of the procuring entity’s evaluation committee failed the test of promoting competition and ensuring that competitors are treated fairly in accordance with Section 2(b) of the Act (Public Procurement),” the PPOA review board said in an assessment.

The freeze of the fast-food contract was prompted by a complaint from Liberty Eagle Kenya Ltd, which owns the local franchise of top US-based fast food chain, Subways.

It complained that Slims restaurant did not meet the threshold of having international reputation and that KAA delayed the release of the award of the tender, making it difficult for Subway to appeal within the provided seven-day window.

The applicant said that KAA breached regulation 66(2) of the public procurement by delaying the release of information on the outcome of the tender which placed its right to appeal at risk because of the seven-day window provided for entities that are not satisfied with award decisions.

Liberty Eagle said KAA emailed a notification on April 16 despite the award letter having been dated April 9. Subway also protested its exclusion from the tender after providing a bank statement that did not bear the name of the account holder, which KAA say made it difficult to establish the bidder’s financial ability.

PPOA ordered the award of the tender to Braitown be cancelled and the bids re-evaluated by May 30.

KAA issued the tender in January for the development and management of an international brand fast food outlet at JKIA’s new Unit 4, expected to be opened in July.

“Kenya Airports Authority wishes to engage an internationally reputable firm with experience in operating an international brand fast food outlet, to manage a similar facility at the new terminal Unit 4,” read the tender notice.

Liberty Eagle indicated in bid papers that it has 41,000 fast food outlets in 104 countries and offered to run the restaurant at JKIA at an annual concession rate of 10 per cent.

The Unit 4 is the extension of the exiting airport and is expected to handle 2.5 million passengers that will ease congestion at the East Africa’s main air travel hub.

The airport was built in the 1970s to handle 2.5 million passengers annually and has been struggling to handle more than six million people a year as its regional importance grew.

This has seen KAA race to host facilities like hotels at the airport that will offer comfort to foreigners and local travellers who have developed an appetite for Western brands.

The KAA tender team had on March 27, recommended that the contract be awarded to Barintown Ltd Group after it beat six other bidders with a score of 98.30 points.

Only three — Barintown Ltd, Hoggers Ltd and Naked Pizza — made it past the evaluation stage, leading to protests from rivals.

An evaluation report seen by the Business Daily showed that four other firms were disqualified mainly on financial inability.

A meeting of KAA’s full tender committee on February 27, picked out an anomaly in the evaluation committee’s report and ordered for re-evaluation on grounds that Liberty Eagle Kenya Ltd had been unfairly been knocked out at the technical evaluation stage.

The committee said it was possible to verify an account owner using their number in a bank statement, but the re-evaluation did not happen.

“The procuring entity’s disqualification of our bid on the grounds of financial capability was therefore preposterous,” the US food chain said.

The PPOA accused KAA of delaying feedback on the outcome of the bids and erroneously dismissing the applicants bids based on a missing account name on a document submitted despite confirmation from Barclays.