By Chris Oanda

We congratulate Kenyans for exercising their democratic right by voting in the just concluded General Election and for maintaining peace thereafter.

Our gratitude also goes to the IEBC for their courage in conducting the most complex election in the Kenyan election history amidst obvious operational challenges.

The recent Supreme Court ruling on the presidential election petition has come and left many careers in disarray.

While many are eagerly waiting for the detailed ruling to decipher the balancing of reasons and counterclaims the six Supreme Court Judges to arrive at the unanimous decisions, some things are pretty clear.

One such clarity is the procurement and implementation of BVR Kits presented unique challenges to IEBC’s management.

What is also clear is that had the BVR Kits been successfully deployed and used as envisaged, the country may have been spared the very high voltage stakes dramas of the presidential election petition.

For sure, this may also have reduced the possibility of any of the many impending petitions for MPs, Governors and Senators we are likely to see trooping to High Courts across the country in the coming days.

If a working BVR Kit was a panacea for so many previous electoral malpractices, why didn’t IEBC employ the best effort to get it right the first time it went to the market to procure? Recent newsprint archives are replete with reasons offered for the IEBC’s failure to successfully procure the BVR Kit for the just ended national elections.

Most of these reasons point to lack of strict adherence to the public procurement law first enacted in 2005. IEBC ran into procedural and process challenges in its first attempt to procure the BVR Kits following its highly publicised yet controversy riddled tender of June 2012.

Competing interests within IEBC threatened to spill over into the public domain for containment while the country anxiously looked on.

To avoid the country going into an election without the panacea prescribed by the Judge Kriegler Commission and enshrined in the constitution, the GoK entered into the now famous Sh10 billion Government to Government procurement in consort with the Canadian government to procure a kit. 

The rest is now history.  The country had a failed attempt in using the BVR Kit on the day of election on March 4.

Mis-procurement

Key questions remain in the minds of many Kenyans following this massive technology failure on the D-Day mainly cantered around IEBC’s preparedness to handle such a massive technology project on a scale not seen anywhere in Africa in the recent past.

Despite the centrality of the BVR Kits to a successful election, why did IEBC surrender its procurement responsibility and mandate to the GoK officials who are not answerable or accountable to IEBC?

Even after the GoK offered to sort out the IEBC procurement misstep, why did IEBC not follow through with a solid project implementation plan which could have included the procurement, delivery, installation, training and handover and guarantee for the period beyond polling day? This is normal practice for such high-spend projects delivered against critical goals and tight deadlines as was the case for the March 4th poll.

In spite of the favourable court ruling, the IEBC is still expected to quickly put its house in order and shed some light on how a huge budget of Sh10 billion will deliver future value for the intended purpose.

IEBC is not the only public institution that is likely to grapple with the giant question of efficient and accountable procurement. As Kenya moves forward with implementation of the devolved system, the Central and County governments are expected to spend huge budgets to deliver promised services to the electorate, tax payer and citizenry.

The primary vehicle for such spend will be the public procurement and disposal process. Needless to say, if the taxpayer is to get value for the money spent in the devolved system, correct, transparent and accountable public procurement must be the very basic minimum that our new leaders need to guarantee to the citizens.

Governors in the 47 Counties and 22 or so Cabinet Secretaries must strive to avoid the IEBC BVR Kit mis-procurement debacle. Not many of them may have a lucky escape like IEBC management assisted by competing national interests well beyond their control.

Well trained Supply Chain and procurement specialists have been posted to each of these counties to advise and assist governors to navigate the shark-infested deep waters of public procurement which could drown their political careers if not well managed.

What appears a golden era for promise delivery could quickly turn into a mirage and quick sand where public funds are not properly accounted for especially at the County level.

Destiny

Our encouragement to the new County Governors and Principal Secretaries, CEOs of Public and Private sector organizations is that they have now a professional cadre of Supply Chain practitioners to advise and guide them through proper procurement methods within the law.

These officers should not be insubordinated or relegated to the junior ranks of their administration where their skills and management contribution will not make a strategic contribution.

These officers and specialists are your partners for successful delivery of the Jubilee Government campaign promises to the citizens. Anything short of that will mark the beginning of the end for many high level careers even well before the next landmark date with destiny in August 2017 at polling stations. Let efficient procurement make your careers instead of breaking them in the new era.

The writer is Chairman, Kenya Institute of Supplies Management