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Tender wars have hit the Kenya Veterinary Vaccines Production Institute (Kevevapi), derailing plans to acquire modern machines for packaging of animal medicine.
The tender battles have dragged in the agency’s chief executive officer Jane Wachira and the head of procurement, Mr Ruttoh Kiprono, and have resulted in the board recommending disciplinary action on staff involved.
A professional opinion sent on December 21, 2017 by Mr Kiprono to Dr Wachira indicates that a company called Leeds Equipment and Systems Ltd won a tender to supply a filling line at Sh93 million.
The filling line has four components; automatic vial washing machine, automatic filling machine, automatic capping sealing machine and automatic labelling machine.
Mr Kiprono recommended that Leeds be offered the tender to supply the filling line since its bid was the lowest for the four units.
However, the tender evaluation committee recommended that the contract be given to Medsurge Healthcare Ltd, which quoted Sh299 million, which was more than triple Leeds’ quote.
EVALUATION
The tender committee justified its decision by saying that Medsurge is sourcing the equipment from a globally recognised manufacturer and that the proposed site is small enough for the size they are bidding.
But Mr Kiprono differed with the committee.
“The size and space issues were given out as an addendum and can be resolved with the bidders before signing the contract,” he wrote to Dr Wachira.
He added: “Therefore… (Leeds) having passed the preliminary and technical evaluation, having best met the specifications for the equipment and being the lowest bidder, cannot be rejected on the basis of country of origin.”
He also pointed out that Medsurge had failed in the technical evaluation for automatic labelling machines since they did not indicate specifications nor attached brochures for the unit but indicated the price only.
FUNDS
He further pointed out that Medsurge does not provide training of bidder operators at the site of intended use, which was part of the tender requirements.
“(Leeds) provides training at the site and also offers (as added) to take users/technicians for a follow-up training at the manufacturers plant, including certification of the trainees,” Mr Kiprono said in his letter.
However, rather than award the contract to Leeds, the board terminated the tender altogether in February, citing insufficient funds.
Leeds appealed the decision at the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) which found that the termination was unlawful.
“Under the provisions of Section 53 (8) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, the law expressly requires that before an accounting officer of a procuring entity commences on any procurement proceedings, he/she must first be satisfied that there are sufficient funds to meet the obligations arising from any contract that may be entered into pursuant to the procurement process,” the board said in its ruling last month.
TENDERING
The board also dismissed Kevevapis claim that it lacked enough money to fulfil the contract, saying the institute should have cancelled the tender during the public opening of the bids once they realised that the prices quoted were above budgetary allocation.
It ordered Dr Wachira to issue Leeds an award letter within 14 days, which lapsed two weeks ago.
But she told the institute’s board that a closer look at the machines that company is to supply do not mirror the technical requirements in the tender documents.
In its March 29 meeting, “the members resolved that due to the inconsistencies on the face of technical evaluation minutes and the score sheets and the professional opinion, the procurement process be considered a botched exercise and all the staff involved be taken through the internal disciplinary process,” minutes of the board said.
COMPANIES
Last year, the institute invited 10 firms, through restricted tendering, to submit bids for the supply, installation, training and commissioning of laboratory equipment.
The filling line equipment was part of other items tendered for, which included 1,200 litre and 250 litre bioreactors, three fully automated bioreactors and four vaccine holding tanks.
Eight companies responded. They are Brookpharm Biotech Ltd, Medsurge Healthcare Ltd, DLA Scientific Ltd, F &S Scientific Ltd, Leeds Equipment & Systems Ltd, Lued (A) Chemicals Ltd, Swama and Africa Biosystems. |
