Procurement board raise concerns over KPLC meter tender

Kenya Power & Lighting Company (KPLC) technicians replace a transformer that serves late former president Mwai Kibaki's rural home in Kanyange, Nyeri County. [File, Standard]

The procurement oversight authority has raised concerns over a multi-billion shillings contact by Kenya Power for supply of electricity meters.

The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) claims that their investigations into the Sh5.4 billion contract had revealed discrepancies about the initial contract sums and the amount awarded to four companies that won the tender.

"The authority observed that the total cost and quantities of the meters that were requested and approved totalling to Sh4,479,550,609 were not commensurate with the estimates of Sh1,527,500,000 in the procurement plan and is against provisions of procurement law," said PPRA.

PPRA noted that despite the cost being inflated from the original amount of Sh1.5 billion to 4.4 billion, Kenya Power and Lighting Company still went ahead to pay a total of Sh5.4 billion to the companies which won the tender.

The authority's Director-General Patrick Wanjuki has written to KPLC Managing Director Joseph Siror demanding explanation on the discrepancies and the status of the project.

According to Wanjuki, the authority noted that the additional costs and quantities of the meters were not approved by the KPLC board of directors as required and noted that the MD failed to provide relevant documents to support the justification for the inflated costs.

"We observed that the figures for award indicated in the letters of notifications are not the same as those awarded. This may provide misleading information to both the successful bidders and unsuccessful bidders," said PPRA.

PPRA made the findings following a petition by businessman Benedict Kabugi claiming that the tender process was flawed after some KPLC senior managers allegedly colluded with some companies to change tender specifications at the last minute to lock out some bidders.

According to Kabugi, the tender documents issued to interested bidders after the advertisement in February stated that the eligibility criteria were only for local manufacturing firms.

He however complained that the criteria were changed to include local meter assemblers and not manufacturers through six addenda, a fact which he says substantially changed the original tender document and the eligibility criteria.

"The tender specifications were substantially, unlawfully and irregularly changed at the last minute by Kenya Power in an attempt to custom make the tender for few preferred bidders who were in collusion with senior KPLC staff," he claimed.

He added that the awarded amounts surpassed the allocated budget and the excess amounts were never approved by the Board of Directors and neither was the procurement plan amended to accommodate the excess amounts..

The companies KPLC awarded the tenders are Inhemeter Africa Company Limited, Smart Meter Technology Limited, Yocean Group Limited and Magnate Vendors Limited.