Court orders fresh tender for Sh4.2b road project

Public Private Partnership committee has ordered Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) to re-tender the Sh4.2 billion road construction project.

The committee, led by lawyer Kihara Muruthi, found the tender document by the authority flawed and unclear which led the bidders to interpret it differently. The lucrative deal had attracted ITNL International Pet Ltd and Hemby Holdings Limited on one side and H. Young and GIBB Consortium on the other.

Each team submitted their financial proposals with INTL giving a proposal of Sh4.28 billion and H-Young bidding at Sh4.45 billion. However, a difference arose on a second evaluation of what the State would pay. The amount for H-Young was lower at Sh71.2 billion and that of INTL was Sh83 billion.

The committee ruled the evaluation was not provided for in the tendering document. “The errors have arisen from the side of KeNHA. If the omissions are rendering unfairness, then the process is flawed,” the committee ruled.

Preferred bidder

KeNHA had declared H-Young the preferred bidder prompting the Singapore based firm to challenge the process on the basis that the terms were not indicated.

“The contracting authority should be clear on its regulations to be fair to the bidding firms. The law should be fair, clear, indiscriminatory and transparent to all,” the ruling by Kihara, Charity Muia and Isaac Bondet read in part.

The decision was a major blow to H-Young as it will have to bid again though it was close to clinch the deal.

“The evaluation of the financial proposal was flawed as the tender document contained ambiguities resulting in a process that was not fair and transparent,” the committee noted. INTL had also asked the committee to declare it as the preferred bidder but it declined thus taking it back to the drawing board.