Crane AB claims the findings of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) left it as the successful bidder.
PPARB on January 8 terminated the Central Bank Kenya’s currency printing tender award to De La Rue, noting that it breached the law by giving it a 15 per cent margin preference for having local shareholding.
De La Rue and CBK had also separately appealed the decision.
Swedish firm Crane AB has moved to the High Court seeking to be awarded the Sh10 billion-a-year currency printing tender, claiming the findings of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) left it as the successful bidder.
PPARB on January 8 terminated the Central Bank Kenya’s currency printing tender award to De La Rue, noting that it breached the law by giving it a 15 per cent margin preference for having local shareholding. De La Rue and CBK had also separately appealed the decision.
The board had given the regulator 14 days to start a fresh review but De La Rue and CBK successfully obtained court orders suspending the decision, pending hearing and determination of their appeal.
“An order of Mandamus directed to the respondent to substitute the Central Bank of Kenya decision awarding De La Rue International Limited with Tender No. CBK/37/2017-2018, with an order directing the Central Bank of Kenya to award Crane AB with tender No. CBK/37/2017-2018 and that Central Bank of Kenya, do issue a letter of award to the Crane AB forthwith,” reads order sought by the Crane AB.
AB Crane, through lawyer James Gitau Singh, claims the review board failed to direct it be awarded the tender despite being satisfied as expressed in the ruling that it was successful in preliminary and technical evaluation, and had the lowest evaluated price in the financial evaluation.
The firm accuses CBK of being unfair to it in the course of the whole process and that it fears the regulator will not give it a fair treatment.
The new suit gives a new angle to the decision at the High Court where De La Rue and CBK has filed separate suits seeking to overturn the PPARB’s decision in totality.
The tenders watchdog ruled that De La Rue did not qualify for the preference margin of 15 per cent applied, adding that the British printers was not the lowest evaluated bidder.
De La Rue has had a stranglehold on the Kenya’s lucrative money printing business except for the period between 1966 and 1985 when notes were printed by UK firm Bradbury Wilkinson, later acquired by De La Rue.
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