High Court halts award of Sh647m key Ifmis tender

The High Court has temporarily stopped the award of a Sh647 million financial system management tender following an application by one of the bidders.

ADK Technologies moved to court to block the award of a tender -to automate the Integrated Financial Management System (Ifmis)- to its rival, arguing that the latter did not win on merit.

“Besides the prayer for certification of the application as urgent and stay, the application is mainly seeking leave to institute a substantive suit for prerogative orders of certiorari, mandamus and prohibition against the respondents,” read part of the ruling by Justice Jairus Ngaah.

ADK argues its rival did not meet the technical specification for the information technology deal, claiming the firm is specialised in insurance services and not Information Communication Technology (ICT) products.

ADK, through lawyer Duncan Kiprono, wants the court to compel the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) to review the case after the tribunal dismissed it last month. He has listed PPARB as a respondent and Treasury Principal Secretary and Kingsways Business Solutions as interested parties.

Treasury had invited eligible bidders to bid for the provision of onsite support for Ifmis applications, enhancement of Ifmis e-Procurement and Infmis for Semi-Autonomous Government Agency through an advertisement published on June 16, 2020.

Five firms bid for the tender, Sybyl Kenya Ltd, Kingsway Business Systems Ltd in Consortium with Kobby Technologies Ltd and M/s Inplenion Eastern Africa.

Bagged deal

Others were M/s Next Technologies, M/s Ubora Systems and Solutions in consortium with Tech Mahindra and Transnational Computer Technology in consortium with ADK Technologies.

In January, Treasury PS Julius Muia notified bidders that a consortium led by Kingsway Business Systems Ltd bagged the deal.

However, ADK Technologies lodged a request for review on February 8, 2021 at PPARB citing fraud. The Faith Waigwa-led board dismissed the request on grounds that the application was not properly filed before the board.

Dissatisfied, ADK Technologies moved to court to seek judicial review of PPARB’s decision and to stop Treasury from signing the contract.