Public Investments Committee grills railways boss over tenders

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Kenya: The parliamentary Public Investments Committee (PIC) Tuesday grilled the Kenya Railways Corporation boss over the way the tendering for the feasibility study for the multibillion shilling standard-gauge railway was done.

At a meeting in Nairobi, PIC vice chairman and Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa, and members Paul Otuoma (Funyula), Olago Aluoch (Kisumu West) and Barre Shill (Fafi) sought to know why Kenya Railways failed to seal a deal for a feasibility study after three attempts.

The new boss, Atanas Maina, said between November 2009 and March 2011, Kenya Railways had failed three times to secure the services of a consultant to do a feasibility study on the standard gauge railway for Sh700 million.

Maina, who got the job last month, said the contract was first awarded to M/s Italferr SPA at a cost of Sh1.2 billion on April 7, 2010. But a fortnight later, it was cancelled because the corporation could not afford it. The corporation had a Sh695million budget.

The second time was on July 2010, when the same company – M/s Italferr SPA – won the tender, this time quoting a price of Sh795 million.

The process was, however, annulled by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board on September 8, 2010, after two other bidders M/s Gibb Africa and M/s Canarail lodged complaints.

The third time, the Kenya Railways tender committee decided to seek companies to express interest in the feasibility study. This time, everything went smoothly and still M/s Italferr got the job on March 7, 2011.

But a week after they were informed – March 16, 2011–that they had been awarded the contract, the then Transport minister Amos Kimunya cancelled it.

MPs were surprised that a minister could just cancel a contract of a State corporation.

“Is it normal in Government for the minister or the parent ministry to micromanage the affairs of a State corporation?” asked Ichung’wa.

Maina told the MPs that Kimunya had on February 22, 2011, informed Kenya Railways that China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) had done a free feasibility study for the standard gauge railway.

He also informed the corporation that there was no consensus in Government on the project.

“I think there was frustration on the part of the Government that we may never have carried out the feasibility study. So when an opportunity came for a government-to-government deal, the Government had to take it up,” said Maina.

The CRBC’s report on the feasibility study elicited mixed reactions. The managing director at the time, Nduva Muli, who is now the Transport principal secretary, dismissed the CRBC report as shallow.

“The feasibility study was done, but we were not obliged to do anything with it after that,” said Maina.