Ex-Kiambu county officer in trouble over Sh588m roads tender

A former accounting officer in Kiambu county government awarded a Sh588 million tender for construction of roads to a company that was not qualified after disregarding the professional opinion of the county procurement boss, a magistrate court heard yesterday.

Senior Principal Magistrate Thomas Nzioki heard that Lucas Wahinya, who waschief officer Roads and Public Works, defied the advice of Dr Justus Bundi, the Director Supply Chain Management, and gave Testimony Enterprises Limited the lucrative tender.

According to the prosecution, after winning the tender the company gave former governor Ferdinand Waititu a kick back of Sh25.6 million.

Dr Bundi said the company was not qualified for the tender to construct roads because it had not produced all the required documents and certificates to prove its capacity for doing the job.

The tender was for upgrading various gravel roads in Thika, Limuru, Gatundu North, Juja and Ruiru sub-counties during the financial year 2017-2018.

Dr Bundi said other bidders for the contractwere disadvantaged because the tender evaluation committee introduced new evaluation criteria for qualification of the job. The new criteria, described as ‘serialization of documents’, was not part of the bid document and was introduced without knowledge of the other bidders.

The disadvantaged bidders include Njuca Consolidated Company Limited, Sharwins Ltd, Dickways Construction Company, Ltd and Wel-Athi Holdings (K) Ltd.

The witness told the anti-corruption court that after evaluating the tender documents, he established that Testimony Enterprises Limited had not attached documents showing prove of doing work of similar magnitude.

“It did not also prove it had sound financial standing or adequate equipment and key personnel to carry out the road construction works,” said Dr Bundi in his evidence which was being led by State Counsel Faith Mwila.

He pointed out the gaps to Mr Wahinya, who in response insisted that the due procurement procedure was followed to the letter.

Through a letter dated March 5, 2018, Mr Wahinya also responded that the few issues noted by Dr Bundi could not affect the outcome after evaluation and proceeded to award Testimony Enterprises the tender.

The court heard that the other bidders were later notified that they were unsuccessful because theirs bids for the tender were non-responsive on some mandatory requirements as per the tender evaluation report.

Dr Bundi testified that due process was not followed and if re-evaluation was to be repeated the outcome would be have been different.

He said the decision of the Chief Officer was contrary to Section 84(3) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, which requires the Chief officer to take into account the views of director of procurement in the sign professional opinion. Hearing of the case will proceed today.