Companies

China firm sues Ketraco over Sh2bn transmission contract

ketraco

High voltage power transmission lines. FILE PHOTO | NMG

A Chinese firm has moved to court to stop a State agency from proceeding with an award of Sh1.9 billion tender to a rival firm for the erection of underground power transmission cables.

China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd says in court documents that unless the court intervenes and stops the contract, Kenyans will lose in excess of Sh403 million.

The company says the tender price quoted by the rival firm is very high and against the principle of prudent use of public funds.

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) awarded the tender to DEC-Hanhe Consortium for Sh1.94 but the Chinese company says the award is in contravention of clause 28 and 35 of the tender document and the constitution.

Justice Jairus Ngaah certified the case as urgent and the matter to be mentioned on January 25 for directions.

Court documents show that the Chinese company offered to carry the works for Sh1.5 billion but its bid was rejected on grounds that it was non-responsive at the preliminary evaluation stage.

The tender for the procurement of 132 KV underground cable for the Nanyuki-Rumuruti transmission line, was announced in March last year.

The Chinese firm says Ketraco introduced and applied an evaluation criteria not set out in the tender document.

“The 2nd respondent (Ketraco) took into account irrelevant considerations because there was no requirement under one of the clause of the tender document that all the projects previously done by us should have been executed using the XLPE technology-a form of cable technology,” read the documents.

The firm’s project manager Gao Li says Ketraco failed to take into account relevant considerations with respect to the tender’s technical requirements and in particular in its proposal indicating that the proposed project would be executed using the XLPE technology as the requirements in the tender document.

He says the decision to award the tender at a much higher tender price is in violation of the constitution and “prejudices the legitimate expectations of the Kenyan taxpayers for prudent utilisation of the meagre resources and to achieve value for public funds.”