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Government Rejects Sh500 Million
Claims
Business Daily (Nairobi)
27 February 2008
Jim Onyango
The Government has said it will not pay claims worth Sh500 million
in pending bills after they were found to be exaggerated.
The bills were among the more than Sh1 billion worth of claims
recently scrutinised by the Pending Bills Closing Committee. Most
of the claims verified by the committee were presented by road
contractors.
The announcement is likely to set the stage for legal battles
between contractors, suppliers and the Government.
Treasury permanent Secretary Joseph Kinyua said yesterday the
pending bills closing committee, which was established in 2005,
will complete its work by June.
"Any local or foreign company found to have misrepresented their
claims will be blacklisted and stopped from participating in the
procurement process," Mr Kinyua said at the sidelines of a
training seminar for members of the Public Procurement Oversight
Authority in Nairobi.
As at June, last year, the committee had faulted pending bills
claims worth about Sh104 billion. The committee said then that the
Government should recover Sh2.4 billion from the claimants as they
had been overpaid.
The committee has scrutinised 90 per cent of the pending bills
disputed by the Government in 2004. "If they go to court, we have
evidence that the bills were inflated" said Mr Kinyua.
In the past, courts have directed the Government to pay
contractors and suppliers after the Government either delayed or
rejected the claims. Irregular government tenders and procurements
have historically provided the biggest loophole for transferring
money from public coffers to private hands.
In some cases, tenders were awarded to firms either through single
sourcing or manipulation of bids.
In other cases, full payments were made for projects that failed
to take off or abandoned halfway.
Tenders were also awarded to un-competitive bidders through
irregular disqualification of the lowest bidders.
A major milestone in the procurement reforms was achieved with the
enactment of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act in 2005.
The Act, which became operational in 2007, attempts to promote
transparency and competition in the tendering process by ensuring
integrity and minimising opportunities for corruption in
procurement.
A Public Procurement Oversight Authority has since been created to
ensure that the new legal framework for procurement is complied
with.
Mariam El-Maawy, the chairperson of the Authority, said they will
transform the procurement process to minimise corruption.
"We want to ensure that Kenyans get value for their money in
public contracting, we have redefined the procurement process to
make it transparent" she said.
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