City Hall on the spot over irregular Sh278m garbage tender contract to inexperienced firm

Aende Group and Company Limited Director, Derick Aende when he appeared before the county Environment committee on 19/2/2019. [Photo: Standard]

Nairobi County Government is under fire for awarding a Sh278 million garbage collection tender to a firm that has no experience in garbage collection

The company that won the tender, Aende Group and Company Ltd, was registered in June 2018. It was curiously awarded the tender in September of the same year.

The tender award went against procurement regulations which require that a firm which has been contracted to collect garbage must be in operation for at least one year.

Derrick Aende, the company’s director who appeared before the Nairobi County Assembly Environment Committee on Tuesday, admitted that at the time of bidding, his firm had no prior experience in that line of work.

52 stewards

“The company had no prior experience in garbage collection, but the workers employed had the experience,” said Mr Aende.

“We had an office staff of 15, and 52 stewards to clean the city.”

The numbers are, however, way below the threshold of 200 stewards required to clean the capital. 

The committee led by John Kamau revealed that the company had only been operational for 78 days before it was awarded the lucrative tender.

Aende Group was registered on June 6, 2018 and on September 18, won the tender and proceeded to sign the deal on October 2.

Tender evaluation documents seen by The Standard revealed that interested companies were required to have between one and five years of experience in waste management.

Other firms that unsuccessfully bid for the contract were Creative Consolidated System, which had interestingly been collecting garbage in the Central Business District since 2013, Kemnest Investment and Janel Agencies. Creative had tabled a bid valued at Sh316.9 million, while Kemnest and Janel had tabled bids valued collectively at Sh190.7 million.

Mr Kamau expressed concerns that the tendering process was flawed and went against all public procurement laws.

He also said that critical documents required in the bidding process from Aende were missing.

Nairobi County Environment chief officer David Makori, however, defended the tender award, telling the committee that his office had received the documents required during the evaluation stage. 

Minority Chief Whip, Peter Imwatok pressed Aende to explain why his firm had tabled a financial statement dating back to as far as December 2017, yet the firm was registered on June 6, 2018.

 “Too many things do not add up. I recommend that this probe be taken further so that we can summon other officials involved to get to the bottom of the issue,” Mr Imwatok said.

 Questionable credentials

Imwatok also revealed that the company had used another firm’s credentials - Galore Trading Company - to get certification from the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) in order to bid for the tender.

Aende admitted that his firm had no vehicles capable of collecting garbage. But he said he had hired trucks which were certified by Nema to collect garbage.

Aende confirmed that he had received a total of Sh25 million in payment from City Hall to date, since signing the contract last year.

He said the money was used for payment to stewards, and also payment for security needed to protect company equipment.