AG's office clueless on double consultancy allocation for railway tender

Kenya: The Office of the Attorney General was yesterday unable to shed light on the circumstances under which the Government made a double allocation of funds for consultancy services towards the construction of the Sh327 billion standard gauge railway.

Solicitor General Njee Muturi was unable to tell the Public Investment Committee how an allocation of Sh32.7 billion was done under the main contract and another Sh43 billion made in a subsequent contract for a similar service.

Mr Muturi, who appeared before the House team as a friend of the committee, said the AG's office is not in a position to say if due diligence on the project was conducted.

"We, however, state that the office of the AG was not requested to approve the contract signed on June 3, 2014 for the provision of consultancy services for design, review and construction supervision for the construction of a standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Nairobi," Muturi told the committee.

Members had questioned the double allocation, with claims that it had been designed to favour the winning bidder. The bid was won by Third Railway Survey Design Institute Group, a sister company of China Roads and Bridges Company.

Under the main contract, 10 per cent of the total construction amount had been allocated to consultancy.

Committee Chairman Adan Keynan (Eldas) claimed the company had inside information on the consultancy bid.

"The reason they quoted such a low price is that they had inside information...they knew that there was another allocation lying somewhere," claimed Keynan.

The company had placed a bid of Sh43 billion.