Friday, January 27, 2006
PUBLIC PROCUREMENT SYSTEM
Anglo Leasing is a hydra that is sprouting new heads faster than you can cut them. The perpetrators, in their hurried scheming, seem to have ignored the obvious. Not everyone in their team was playing ball. There seem to be pockets of integrity determined to protect the public kitty.
The revelations of the scrupulous manipulation of the public procurement procedures and the accompanying apparent loss of public funds are issues that would bring down any government in the civilized world. The government is the custodian of public property. We, the citizens, bequeath our government the prudent and judicious management of this property. It is disheartening to note that our government through its agents is a frequent abuser of this trust. If this was an employee, he would get a letter referenced ‘show cause why your services should not be terminated’.
The Anglo Leasing saga has phantoms returning money that they do not admit having received initially. Restitution is an acknowledgement of guilt. In the old impromptu audits, especially in the military, if the money was not in the cash box, or the safe, it mattered little that it was in your pocket, it was missing and whether you returned it or not, you were culpable. Even now if the money is not in the treasury or has been properly expended someone is culpable. The last time I checked this was called theft by servant.
Something is not right with our procurement system. We seem to be very eager to set up high level committees and commissions which become moribund because they are either too bloated or there is no political goodwill for their success. At such times they become tools of manipulation by the few in the know. The inter-ministerial committee is either complicit in the frauds or ineffectual and past its sell by date. It neither barks nor bites.
There are a milliard companies in the world that are competent and willing to tender for the various supplies and services. Why we should continue to single source from the same supplier whose previous dealings are suspect beats the sane mind. Once a supplier is involved in dubious dealings, they should be blacklisted and denied future business. Only in Kenya do we keep going back to the same discredited supplier, this stinks of vested interests which we call corruption, which is a crime.
Government procurement contracts are public property. They should be available at least to all the parliamentarians and by extension to the wananchi. The MPs, as the people’s representatives, should familiarize themselves with the sourcing, contracting and payment procedures to be effective watch dogs. We are spending too much money on our MPs, per capita, for the services they are rendering. Each MP should have the capability to research issues in the public domain for them to make positive contributions in their debates. They should grow the teeth to bite for the sake of the wananchi. Vested interests and camaraderie should not cloud objectivity and truth.
The central tender board should be strengthened and manned with professional purchasing and supply managers. The workings and tender manipulations in the Anglo Leasing saga, Mahindra saga, AP Communication Equipment saga, where one family is linked to all the lucrative and dubious contracts in the government, is nothing new in the trade. To beat the single sourcing rule, one family will register five companies, say in five countries, all will tender for a particular contract, with inside collusion other companies will not be invited to tender. To the outsider, you will have five different companies from five countries tendering, a façade of a truly international sourcing but they all belong to the same family. Check those addresses in UK; India, Switzerland or Nairobi, there is bound to be some common link. In such a situation, what is to stop the company quoting any price they want? Somebody is being economical with the truth.
A simple search in the internet or on the ground can unravel most of this mystery. This is one reason why the former regime restricted access to information. Any company worth its salt has a website giving at least some basic information of its operations. Let us utilize technology to beat the corrupt and treacherous at their game. The Narc regime has no business being economical with truth. The public is entitled to information, not only the sugar coated PR, but also the bitter truth of its failure and incompetence.
It is only in Kenya where the government buys items in wholesale volume at a higher price than you get at the retailers! Even when it is duty and VAT free! This beats common sense, even if you do not take advantage of the economies of scale, you should take advantage of the guarantee of payment, or do government checks still bounce?
If this mess is not sorted fast enough, then, even those who are very clean will be stinking to the heavens when the ***t hits the fan.
Public money is not a wild cow to be milked by whoever wants. The owner has come home and the cow is now under zero grazing. No dairy meal, no milk.
Charles Wairia
The revelations of the scrupulous manipulation of the public procurement procedures and the accompanying apparent loss of public funds are issues that would bring down any government in the civilized world. The government is the custodian of public property. We, the citizens, bequeath our government the prudent and judicious management of this property. It is disheartening to note that our government through its agents is a frequent abuser of this trust. If this was an employee, he would get a letter referenced ‘show cause why your services should not be terminated’.
The Anglo Leasing saga has phantoms returning money that they do not admit having received initially. Restitution is an acknowledgement of guilt. In the old impromptu audits, especially in the military, if the money was not in the cash box, or the safe, it mattered little that it was in your pocket, it was missing and whether you returned it or not, you were culpable. Even now if the money is not in the treasury or has been properly expended someone is culpable. The last time I checked this was called theft by servant.
Something is not right with our procurement system. We seem to be very eager to set up high level committees and commissions which become moribund because they are either too bloated or there is no political goodwill for their success. At such times they become tools of manipulation by the few in the know. The inter-ministerial committee is either complicit in the frauds or ineffectual and past its sell by date. It neither barks nor bites.
There are a milliard companies in the world that are competent and willing to tender for the various supplies and services. Why we should continue to single source from the same supplier whose previous dealings are suspect beats the sane mind. Once a supplier is involved in dubious dealings, they should be blacklisted and denied future business. Only in Kenya do we keep going back to the same discredited supplier, this stinks of vested interests which we call corruption, which is a crime.
Government procurement contracts are public property. They should be available at least to all the parliamentarians and by extension to the wananchi. The MPs, as the people’s representatives, should familiarize themselves with the sourcing, contracting and payment procedures to be effective watch dogs. We are spending too much money on our MPs, per capita, for the services they are rendering. Each MP should have the capability to research issues in the public domain for them to make positive contributions in their debates. They should grow the teeth to bite for the sake of the wananchi. Vested interests and camaraderie should not cloud objectivity and truth.
The central tender board should be strengthened and manned with professional purchasing and supply managers. The workings and tender manipulations in the Anglo Leasing saga, Mahindra saga, AP Communication Equipment saga, where one family is linked to all the lucrative and dubious contracts in the government, is nothing new in the trade. To beat the single sourcing rule, one family will register five companies, say in five countries, all will tender for a particular contract, with inside collusion other companies will not be invited to tender. To the outsider, you will have five different companies from five countries tendering, a façade of a truly international sourcing but they all belong to the same family. Check those addresses in UK; India, Switzerland or Nairobi, there is bound to be some common link. In such a situation, what is to stop the company quoting any price they want? Somebody is being economical with the truth.
A simple search in the internet or on the ground can unravel most of this mystery. This is one reason why the former regime restricted access to information. Any company worth its salt has a website giving at least some basic information of its operations. Let us utilize technology to beat the corrupt and treacherous at their game. The Narc regime has no business being economical with truth. The public is entitled to information, not only the sugar coated PR, but also the bitter truth of its failure and incompetence.
It is only in Kenya where the government buys items in wholesale volume at a higher price than you get at the retailers! Even when it is duty and VAT free! This beats common sense, even if you do not take advantage of the economies of scale, you should take advantage of the guarantee of payment, or do government checks still bounce?
If this mess is not sorted fast enough, then, even those who are very clean will be stinking to the heavens when the ***t hits the fan.
Public money is not a wild cow to be milked by whoever wants. The owner has come home and the cow is now under zero grazing. No dairy meal, no milk.
Charles Wairia
