Intern costs Nema Sh100m case in a tender dispute

The environment watchdog has been ordered to sign a fresh contract for the procurement of a Sh100 million environmental information management system after its explanation that an intern misplaced some documents was rejected.

The Public Procurement and Administrative Review Board (PPARB) annulled a decision by the National Environmental Management Authority (Nema) to award the contract to Agile Business Solutions on January 17, 2024, following a complaint by Green Com Enterprise Solutions, which was also competing for the contract.

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The board found that Nema rushed to sign the contract with Agile Business Solutions before allowing other bidders to utilise a two-week appeals window contrary to the law.

Nema claimed that it was notified of the case challenging the tender award on January 15, two days before signing the contract, but an intern misplaced the documents until January 22, an argument the board dismissed.

“The Board therefore finds that the procurement contract between the procuring entity (Nema) and the interested party (Agile Business Solutions) was not executed in compliance with Sections 135 of the Act and thus did not divest the board of jurisdiction over the instant Request for Review under Section 167(4)(c) of the Act,” the PPARB said in the January 30 decision.

Green Com Enterprise Solutions moved before the board on January 11, complaining that Nema unjustifiably denied it the contract based on failing to prove it could undertake it, despite having submitted the lowest price to the authority.

The company had proposed to charge Nema Sh88 million to undertake the contract for the development and implementation of an integrated environmental information management system and enterprise resource planning system, but Nema awarded Agile Business Solutions the contract for Sh99 million.

The board, nonetheless, found that Green Com Enterprise Solutions failed to meet mandatory tender requirements for technical evaluation and Nema was, thus, justified in denying it the contract.

“Considering that the Applicant (Green Com Enterprise Solutions) only supplied one out of the required three that only conformed to the monetary value and the said similar contract was not supported by any recommendation letter, the Board cannot fault the Procuring Entity’s (Nema) disqualification of the Applicant on account of being non-responsive to the requirement on Specific Experience of the Tenderer,” the Board stated.

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Green Com failed the technical evaluation score after it could not prove that it had undertaken at least three similar projects on monetary terms, and had an expert with experience in at least 10 projects in different sectors in either the environmental impact assessment or environmental audit.

The Board, however, proceeded to nullify the contract signed between Nema and Agile Business Solutions on account of the Authority having signed it despite instructions barring it, pending determination of the case.

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