AMbasador Ukur Yatani, Cabinet Secretary National Treasury
A new row has emerged at the National Treasury following the award of a Sh647 million tender on 25 January 2020, to Kingsway Business Systems Ltd in consortium with Kobby Technologies, and Inplenion Eastern Africa Ltd, a firm associated with Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi.
The ADK led consortium filed a request for review at the PPARB on 8th February 2021. The National Treasury compromised a party to the consortium to file for a notice of withdrawal. The Faith Waigwa-led board having considered the notice of withdrawal ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the merits of the request for review.
It appears that the TNT designed a device to scuttle the review process by causing and pressuring a member of the consortium to file a withdrawal notice. The review board suspended the review process claiming that it does not have the jurisdiction to hear the merit of the case thus allowing treasury to get away with hiding that the Kingsway consortium does not meet the specialization criteria and the mandatory disqualifying criteria in the tender provisions.
The Oracle Kenya office, in response to the national Treasury in a letter dated 2nd February 2020, and signed by the Country leader, Mr. Davis Bunei, does not categorically confirm the competency of Kingsway Consortium and only recognizes the Kingsway consortium partners as Resellers, without any service expertise, a mandatory requirement in the bid document.
The ADK led consortium in their appeal bases their claim for fraud on information available in the Oracle partner portal http://partner-finder.oracle.com/ , in which they assert that Kingsway and its consortium partners are not recognized as competent. The Lead Account Manager at Oracle, one David Ochieng confirms this very reference site, http://partner-finder.oracle.com/ in an email response to Treasury on 15 Jan 2021, an email seeking to confirm the partner credentials of the Kingsway Consortium partners.
Exhibits supplied by treasury to the Review Board had conflicting due diligence dates and printout pages from the Oracle portal, Oracle had informed Treasury to locate whether the Kingsway consortium possessed the specialization.
Our paper followed the instructions provided by the exhibits provided by Treasury and after following the procedure to verify whether Kingsway consortium possessed the specialization affirmed the expertise page supported the claim that they did not have the specialization.
Instead, TNT was collaborating with the consortium to use as evidence of a solution page editable by Kingsway consortium as proof that had the specialization. Alfred Agoi, Sabatia MP
The ADK led consortium moved to the High Court seeking to nullify the award to the Kingsway led consortium for “The Provision of Onsite Support for IFMIS, an Oracle –based product”. The High court has since temporarily suspended the award to the consortium led by Kingsway Business Systems Ltd following a case filed by the rival Consortium ADK Technologies citing fraud in the tendering process.
According to records at Treasury Kingsway Business Systems Limited, listed directors include Simeon Ogendo, Seth Asuza Changilwa, Alfred Agoi Masadia and Beatrice Kosgei. It is noteworthy that Kingsway Technologies was irregularly awarded another Tender TNT//025/2020-2021 on the 1st February, 2021 for the Development of the Public Investment Management Information Systems Ltd (PIMIS), an award that was challenged by GIBB AFRICA LTD, which the board directed for re-evaluation of Bids, in what seems to be a real sham to give treasury the lee-way to re-evaluate and award Kingsway Systems Ltd in the customary unusual manner.
ADK led consortium through lawyer Duncan Kiprono wants the high court to compel the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board) PPARB) to review the case afresh on merits. He has listed PPARB as respondent while the PS National Treasury and Kingsway Business Systems are listed as interested parties.
On 6th March 2021, Justice Jairus Ngaah issued an order temporarily stopping the Treasury from awarding the contract. According to suit papers, ADK Consortium claims that Kingsway Business Systems Limited has been providing to the National Treasury with Group Personal Accident services for the last 10 years but not IT services.
ADK claims that in March 2020 Kingsway purchased an entry-level partnership from Oracle in what appears to be credential acquisitions in preparation for the tender.
“Based on the evaluations of Oracle Partner Finder’s website; Kingsway Consortium does not have the Customer references, the Implementation experience, the resources and the development skills and the know how to support the IFMIS Application and the extensive planning and budgeting application for Public Finance Management as required in the bid document,” ADK says.
ADK’s Project Manager, in their affidavit adds; “I verily believe that the procuring entity might have engaged in a flawed procurement process and acted against the laid down laws and procedures, to tilt the scales to enable them carry out a sham procurement process and act in breach of the provisions of law in order to favour Kingsway Business Systems.”