Trouble is brewing in the State Department for Wildlife after Principal Secretary Silvia Museiya cancelled the award of a tender to a firm at the conclusion of a procurement process.
Questions are being raised on grounds under which Museiya cancelled the award of the tender for the review of Wildlife Conservation and Management Bill 2023 as advertised.
The cancellation is a clear violation of public procurement and disposal act of 2015.
Those offended by the sudden decision are wondering why the PS cancelled the award saying they are yet to receive any communication giving valid reasons for the said action.
The consultancy tender was advertised in My Gov Newspaper by the State Department, which is domiciled in the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife & Heritage, on May 16, 2023 and closed on May 30, 2023 at 11am with the tender bids being opened immediately.
According to documents submitted by the five-member tender evaluation committee, a total of six companies had submitted their bids to offer the services by the time of closing.
Documents show that only three companies that bid for the job made the cut hence proceeded to the next stage on completion of preliminary evaluation.
Munyao Muthama and Kashindi Advocates, with the lowest bid of Sh6.9 million and highest overall technical and financial score of 79.91, was awarded the tender by the committee.
The losing financial proposals included on by Institute for Research and Policy Alternatives, with the second highest overall score of 76.6, which had submitted a bid of Sh9 million.
The other losing bidder, K N Mburu and Associates, submitted a quote of Sh10.8 million and had received an overall combined score of 69.02, the third highest score.
But in her reply to an internal memo from Supply Chain Management Services Head Justus Areri dated August 21, 2023, Museiya cancelled the award of the tender raising suspicions of a preferred outcome.
“Cancel the tender based on the presidential directives where all natural resources based departments including wildlife are first supposed to develop a conservation policy from which all other laws are to emanate,” she wrote on the memo by Areri.
The members of the tendering committee, who all signed off on the final professional opinion on the concluded procurement process, were left scratching their heads on the unprecedented decision.
The PS had instead transferred all procurement officers in the State Department for Wildlife over the outcome of the tendering process.
Furthermore, the winning and losing bidders have reportedly not gotten any communication from her office on the way forward on the matter in violation of the procurement policy’s seven-day obligation.
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