Construction of the Sh327 billion standard gauge railway (SGR) will proceed after the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board threw out an application by an Italian company seeking to nullify the tender.

The board also lifted a restraining order issued against the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) restraining it from going ahead with the consultancy services for design, review and construction supervision for the project.

"The stay order issued by the Board on June 6 is hereby discharged and the procuring entity (Kenya Railways) is therefore at liberty to proceed with the procurement process," said the board led by the chairman Paul Gicheru and members Nelson Orgut, Weche Okubo, Peter Ondieki and Paul Ngotho.

The review had been sought by Team Engineering SPA which was ranked third in the bidding for the project after for allegedly filing its request after the deadline.

Team Engineering SPA had asked the board to nullify KRC tender committee's decision to award the works to a Chinese firm working in a consortium with local firms that scored 88.6 per cent. It was followed by Korea Railway Network Authority with 83.4 per cent, while Team Engineering got 75.9 per cent.

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During the hearing of the preliminary objections, Prof Albert Mumma, representing KRC, said the request for a review was filed out of time contrary to the law, which is seven days from the notification of the award of a contract.

"KR and the successful bidder had signed a contract on June 3 pursuant to the tender award to the successful bidder and that in accordance with the provisions of Section 93 (2) of the Act, this took the applicant's request for review outside the jurisdiction of the board," he submitted.

However, Team Engineering SPA represented by lawyers Abdi Wahid Biriq and Rogers Sagana opposed the preliminary objection and maintained that they were not notified that their tender was unsuccessful and learned of the outcome for the first time on June 4, when they visited KRC.

"There were inconsistencies in the communication from the Kenya Railways," said Biriq.