MPs probe Sh1.2b military tenders

By David OchamiParliament's Defence and Foreign Relations Committee is investigating tendering of the Sh1.2 billion construction project for phase two of the Kenya Military Academy at Lanet.
Reports tabled before the Committee imply Chief of General Staff Jeremiah Kianga ordered junior officers to repeat the tender process.
Initially ten firms had been short-listed for the works but the list was expanded to accommodate NK Brothers, according to staff briefs submitted to the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee by officials at Department of Defence.
The firm had built the first phase and is also engaged in other works for the Ministry of Defence costing Sh4 billion but was found to be unsuitable for the second phase of the Academy project, a development Kianga disagreed with forcing a repeat of bids to accommodate it.
Project consultants Tectura International had accused NK Brothers of delayed delivery in the first phase.
Yesterday, directors and an employee of NK Brothers clashed with members of the committee over the tenders for the second phase of the project.
They were ordered out of Parliament and asked to return on Thursday.
Wasting time
The directors led by the group’s MD Pravin Khoda and its project’s manager David Mwaniki appeared before the committee without a written summary or brief and were evasive in their answers.
This prompted committee Chair Aden Keynan to accuse them of "wasting time" and misleading the investigation for alleging they have no clear record of the firm’s legal disputes with clients and whether it has ever been black-listed for substandard work.
According to a brief by a Col G R A Owino to the CGS dated September 3, last year NK Brothers was excluded from the second phase for underperforming on the Sh500 million first phase.
"Although the project (first phase) is running well the contractor (NK Brothers) is barely meeting his monthly targets in terms of output from certificates of payment and measured work done…," he said.
Another brief by Lt Col Mwacharo shows the CGS sought to know why NK Brothers was excluded and demanded that the tender be stopped to await his guidance two weeks after receiving the briefing from Owino.
According to the report Kianga argued that accommodating NK Brothers would make the bids more inclusive and competitive.