The public procurement watchdog has directed the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) to disclose the value of a tender it had floated for cleaning and tea-making services before it proceeds.
This follows a petition filed by The Garden and Weddings Centres Limited, which was challenging the award of the tender to rival Haver The Company Limited on grounds that the Epra did not disclose its value.
The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), upon reviewing the petition, agreed with The Garden and Weddings Centres and asked Epra to issue it with a letter of notification that must include the value of the tender awarded.
“The procuring entity is directed to issue a letter of notification to the applicant in accordance with regulation 82 (3) of the Act read together with Article 47 of the constitution, in particular, to include the tender sum of the award to the interested party within seven days, taking into consideration the board’s findings,” the board said in a ruling dated July 13.
The tender reserved only for women attracted 25 bidders whose proposals were opened on March 24, 2022. After technical and financial evaluations, the tender committee recommended that the contract be awarded to Haver The Company at an unknown value.
The Garden and Weddings Centres Limited, however, requested a review and sought to have the decision to award the tender to Haver The Company annulled.
The applicant challenged the tender saying the Epra failed to promote the integrity and fairness of the process that led to the award by failing to declare the petitioner’s tender substantially responsive and the lowest evaluated tender denying it an opportunity to get the job.
“As a result, the applicant risks suffering loss and damage as a result of the respondent’s breach of the Act and regulations,” says PPARB in its judgment.
The fight started after the regulator's invitation on March 8, 2022, for bids to provide cleaning and tea-making services at the authority.
Expenditure on tea, mandazi and other snacks in public offices has always been shrouded in controversy. Such tenders have in the past been reserved for connected individuals and friends of bosses.
At the onset of Covid-19 in Kenya, the Health Ministry was on the spot for spending Sh4 million given by the World Bank in a few days on “tea and snacks for varied teams” despite the fact that tea in public offices is served to a handful of people.
