Public entities failed to disclose 3,020 contracts that were awarded between July and December last year, highlighting the high levels of non-compliance with the law that are hurting efforts to curb graft and conflict of interest.
New data from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) shows that the State Department of Labour topped the charts with 205 undisclosed contracts in the period followed by Kisii County at 187.
Nandi County published 111 tenders but none of the awarded contracts was disclosed followed by the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) at 100, the National Government Constituencies Development Fund Board with 78, Parliamentary Joint Services (48) and Postal Corporation at 31.
Failure to make public the awarded contracts is a breach of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act and hampers efforts to weed out graft in tendering across national and county governments.
Kenya has for years been grappling with dubiously awarded contracts where taxpayers do not get value for money, with billions of shillings pocketed and no works or services are delivered.
The flawed tendering process also unfairly locks out other bidders and has led to court cases and stalled some projects.
“The following Procuring Entities wilfully failed to co-operate with the Authority in the exercise of its mandate to inspect, assess, review or audit procurement records of a procuring entity by failing to provide procurement records,” PPRA says.
The breach has continued unabated despite the threat of stiff penalties on both individuals and agencies found guilty of violations.
For example, in the 2022/23 financial year, entities did not publicly disclose 4,584 contracts that had been awarded.
Under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, an entity that fails to comply with the requirement to make public all awarded contracts risks a fine not exceeding Sh10 million.
Officials who breach this condition risk a fine of not more than Sh4 million or 10 years in jail or both, hefty sanctions that have seemingly failed to drive compliance levels.
PPRA says by the end of next month, it will make public the entities that failed to publish all awarded tenders in the period from January to June this year.
Disclosures of the awarded contracts are critical in revealing to the public beneficiaries of the lucrative tenders and unmasking potential conflict of interest.
Last year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised concerns about the low compliance levels in revealing companies that bag contracts with public entities.
Revealing of the companies that bag public tenders is one of the conditions that IMF has attached to the new loans extended to Kenya.
In June, senators were accused of diluting the Conflict of Interest Bill, 2023 that sought to bar public officers including lawmakers, governors, parastatal chiefs from bidding for tenders floated by public entities.
The move will further derail efforts to fight graft and conflict of interest in the awarding of public tenders.
But unlike the vast majority of the public entities, the Treasury last month made disclosures on all the status of all public private partnership (PPP) deals and the companies awarded the deals.
The PPP Directorate disclosed the 37 projects, some of which have been completed, delayed or are in the final stages of approval.
