Court halts vehicle licence plates tender

A multi-billion-shilling deal to supply new hi-tech number plates might not happen any time soon.

This is after the High Court referred warring bidders back to the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB), following irregularities in the tendering process.

Justice George Odunga quashed PPARB's decision in favour of Kenyan-owned Tropical Technologies Limited to supply number plates, hot stamping foil and blank plates to the Government, saying it had no powers to award the tender to another bidder if it found errors in the process.

The judge also faulted the board, noting that it failed to consider whether the Transport ministry had money to contract Tropical Technologies at its quoted price.

"In failing to consider whether the procuring entity had the funds appropriated to it sufficient to contract the interested party at their quoted prices, the board failed to consider a material factor and if the allegation that the decision of the board amounts to directing the procuring entity to contract outside the funds appropriated for the tender is true. The direction may well amount to an illegality," the judge ruled.

Thirteen local and international companies competed for the lucrative tender for supply of hi-tech registration plates that the Government hopes will, among other benefits, assist in tracking car thieves.

Initially, German firm, EHA Hoffman International GmbH, was awarded the contract to supply blanks plates for three years at a cost of $6.9 million (Sh709.2 million).

The contract for the hot stamping foils was split between Hoffman at a cost of $20.7 million (Sh2.1 billion) and Ugandan firm, MIG International Ltd, at $1.4 million (Sh144.7 million).

After the contracts were awarded, Tropical, representing a German manufacturer, complained to the Public Procurement Oversight Authority.

PPARB stripped Hoffman and MIG International of the two tenders after it noted massive discrepancies in the evaluation process. The new generation plates also sought to deter fraudsters who use their vehicles as collateral to acquire loans.