Monday, December 12, 2011

Marende defends high cost of House seats



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Speaker Kenneth Marende leads parliamentarians in inspecting the new chambers last week . PHOTO / Dennis Okeyo
Speaker Kenneth Marende leads parliamentarians in inspecting the new chambers last week . PHOTO / Dennis Okeyo 
By ERIC OLOO
Posted  Sunday, December 11  2011 at  13:03
House speaker Kenneth Marende has defended the proposed acquisition of modern seats for the national assembly, saying the Sh200,000 allocated for each seat was cost effective.
Mr Marende said they settled on the price tag following a competitive bidding process. He disclosed that a European bidder had proposed a price of over Sh400,000 per seat.
The Speaker argued that since the successful bidder for the contract was Kenya prisons, the funds will still rotate within the country.
“We considered whether the seats could be manufactured locally and Kenya prisons prepared the samples. They used locally available timber and local leather,” added Mr Marende.
The Speaker said Kenya Prisons is a Government department and winning the tender was not wastage of funds since the monies would remain in the same Government.
Marende said the process followed the Public Procurement Act and was within the law.
“A bill of quantities was brought forth which gave an estimated cost of Sh400,000 per seat when the tender was floated in the International market," added Marende.
He said a European Company which supplies the Tanzanian parliament with seats had expressed interest but was dismissed due to the cost.

He was speaking on Saturday in Rarieda constituency while presiding over a football extravaganza sponsored by area MP Nicholas Gumbo.“Our seats are cost effective and of normal standards and not unique for parliamentary chambers,” argued the speaker.

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