SH30 MILLION BRIBE DEMANDED OVER IEBC POLL TENDER

SH30 MILLION BRIBE DEMANDED OVER IEBC POLL TENDER

WEDNESDAY, 25 JULY 2012 13:42 BY MOSOKU GEOFFREY AND SUSAN MUHINDI

RESPONDED: IEBC CEO James Oswago during a press conference on the tendering of voter registration contract on Monday. Photo/Charles Kimani

AN Indian company has claimed that Foreign Affairs officials demanded a Sh30 million kickback for a favourable report for the BVR tender. 4G Identity Solutions was the lowest bidder in the tender to supply 9,750 biometric voter registration kits to the Independent Election and Boundaries Commission. Last Thursday a new IEBC tender committee decided not to award the tender to 4G despite it being recommended by the IEBC evaluation committee. Instead the tender committee, which had only been in place for three days, recommended that due diligence should start on Symphony, the second lowest bidder.

The previous weekend the original tender committee had resigned. The week before the Public Procurement and Oversight Authority formally advised the IEBC to award the contract to the lowest bidder. "We believe that the letter which was written by Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and which informed the basis of the tender committee to deny us the award despite the fact that were the lowest evaluated company, was a punishment because were refused to compromise to enter corrupt dealings," 4G chairman and CEO Sreeni Tripuraneni wrote to IEBC on Monday.

Four firms were on the IEBC short list: 4G Identity Solutions of India which quoted $45 million (Sh3.72 billion), Symphony whose bid was $47.5 million (Sh3.9 billion), Face Technologies of South Africa at $55.3 million (Sh4.6 billion) and OnTrack of Israel at $99.4 million (Sh8.2 billion). The original tender committee awarded the contract to Face Technologies of South Africa, which ranked third, against the recommendation of the evaluation committee that 4G be awarded the contract.

4G in its letter says they they learnt from the media that its bid had been rejected because of the letter from the ministry alleging that they were blacklisted in India. "We would like to bring to your attention that on various occasions, we received telephone calls from the people in Kenya High Commission in India and Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nairobi telling us that we we needed to pay money to enable them to write a positive letter to IEBC," Dr Sreeni Tripuraneni, 4G chairman and CEO, wrote to James Oswago, CEO of IEBC on July 23. "Having failed on the numerous requests, a certain XXXX who claims to work in the Indian High Commission in Nairobi approached our local partner demanding 30 million shillings on behalf of the officers to enable then write a favourable letter to IEBC," Tripuraneni claimed.

The letter said that 4G was "also surprised to receive a call from a certain Mr XXXX who claims to be working a Hon Consul, Consulate of India and later faxed us a letter informing us that in order to facilitate getting the order from the IEBC we need to contact the mentioned MP to facilitate the transaction. "We have never been blacklisted by any agency in India," wrote the 4G boss. He attached documents showing that 4G is an approved supplier to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), has participated in multiple UIDAI contracts including one in Sikkim where 14 million people were enrolled.

Yesterday, Foreign Affairs PS Thuita Mwangi did not answer our calls or respond to text messages. The electoral body CEO James Oswago confirmed he had received the complaint. "We have already replied to the letter and asked 4G to provide us with more information. We have also asked the Ethics and anti-Corruption Commission and all other relevant government agencies to investigate the claims," Oswago added.

The IEBC boss said that all those mentioned will be probed and the truth established. Kenyan company Symphony is also facing questions over its true identity. It was allegedly blacklisted in 1998 by the Auditor General when it was trading as CAL Wang. In 2003 the new Ethics PS tried to block Symphony from taking up government contracts saying that it was blacklisted from government business. Symphony CEO Rajender Singh has denied the claims saying the company that operated as CAL was later cleared by Treasury. The IEBC tender committee commenced due diligence of Symphony yesterday.

The Foreign Affairs ministry recommended that 4G Identity Solutions be disqualified in May. “We write to inform you that Kenya Mission in New Delhi has conducted preliminary due diligence based on the five areas listed in the letter under the reference. The Mission has requested us to convey their strong advice that their findings indicate the above mentioned entity should not be allowed to enter into any business transaction with any government institution in Kenya,” wrote John Lanyasunya, head of the directorate of Asia and Australasia, to the IEBC on May 31 on behalf of Foreign Affairs PS Thuita Mwangi.

However eight officials still proceeded to visit the 4G headquarters in Hyderabad between June 8 and 11. The eight officers who travelled to India included Decimal Isalano ( director Research and development), Dismas Ong'ondi ( director ICT), Edward Kenga Karisa ( director Finance and procurement), Abdrihaman Bilacha ( director Risk and Compliance) and Godfrey Lemiso ( Manager Logistics) from IEBC. They were accompanied by Margaret Mbugua ( Procurement UNDP), Farhad Toghisu ( IT associate UNDP) and Moses Owuor (International Foundation for Electoral Systems).

The team apparently cleared 4G saying the firm had resolved queries arising from a parliamentary question. Yesterday activist Okiya Omtata filed an urgent case to stop the IEBC from awarding the tender to anyone except the lowest bidder. He claimed that fraud was being used to smear the winning company. Omtata asked the court to prohibit IEBC from conducting due intelligence on Symphony. “I have now become aware that the tendering process is being conducted against a backdrop of powerful forces operating corruptly and discreetly to advance their vested interest,” he said in his application. The case will be heard on Friday before High court judge David Majanja.