To tame petty, tender-related corruption in Kenya, the Public Procurement Oversight Authority should take the route of information technology to evaluate applications before tenders are inflated.
The Principles:
a) Goods supplied to Government and other Public
Agencies in Kenya will be sourced locally, supplied by qualified Kenyans, and
30% by Women, the Youth and the Disabled;
b) Any Kenyan has the right to establish and
conduct business anywhere in the Republic, and
c) Public Agencies must procure high quality goods
and services at the best possible value.
Information Technology will avail potential benefits, such as that it:
1) Removes bias, by ensuring every application is
evaluated, without arbitrary hiding of applications.
2) Will allow comparison of Primary Producer
Prices, e.g. Farm or Factory prices.
3) Ensures suppliers will compete on Function,
Price, Quality, and Speed of Delivery.
4) Removes multiple brokers from the equation – why buy
from a broker when the producer is bidding?
5) Permits the purchaser to set maximum price
differentials and expected margins.
6) Will have basis that any price quoted includes
taxes and margins for the procurer.
7) Can be evaluated by the Public Procurement
Oversight Authority.
Therefore, set up a nationwide system of integrated procurement
software that allows for evaluation and aggregation of all Supplies Tenders by
Public Agencies.
Suppose you want to supply office biros to a Public Agency:
A) You must be a registered seller of biros. How
else would you supply what you don’t sell?
a.
A general merchant, hawker, shopkeeper or kiosk-keeper;
b.
A bookshop,
c.
A wholesaler,
d.
An agent of a manufacturer, or
e.
A Manufacturer of this commodity.
B) You must indicate your tax payment status, and
the tax component of your bid, which will be withheld and paid to KRA by the procuring
agency.
C) You must quote at least three types of biro pens,
and your capacity to supply them:
a.
Pen type 1, its attributes, and why it fits this
tender;
b.
Pen type 2, its attributes, and why it fits this
tender;
c.
Pen type 3, its attributes, and why it fits this
tender;
d.
The manufacturer, wholesale and retail price of
each pen type.
D) You must indicate own quoted price for
delivering this pen type to indicated place of use or storage, and why it is
superior to the manufacturer, wholesale and retail price.
a.
Your quoted price must not exceed the Manufacturer
price by more than 15%
b.
Your quoted price must include all relevant
taxes payable to government.
The buying
agency has a responsibility, when buying standard goods, to buy from the lowest
priced 20%. For procuring non-standard goods and services, the tender must be
open to international bidding.
Each
supplier can only submit one application, but is allowed to amend it once, to
remain competitive.
Each application
will be filed for free, to encourage as many applications as possible.
Anyone
resident in Kenya can submit an application.
Each
application will be aggregated with the preceding supply tenders, and each
attribute averaged, as a guide to any other applicant willing to participate.
The system will display the leading bid code at all times.
They
software system will suggest the top five leading bids for further evaluation.
All bids
will be presented in Kenya Shillings.
