Board orders Kebs look at export tender again
What you need to know:
- Polucon and Baltic Controls were disqualified on the basis that they did not attach a registration certificate.
- Four firms — Bureau Veritas, SGS, Intertek International and China Certification and Inspection Group, were picked.
- “The applicant attached a letter of intent to sub-contract Cotecna, which had a presence in several regions. The board therefore finds that the applicant was discriminated against,” adds the ruling.
The Kenya Bureau of Standards has been ordered to carry out fresh evaluation of a tender for pre-export verification, after the agency was found culpable of discriminating against one bidder.
The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board found that the bureau had discriminated against Polucon Services Kenya Ltd.
Firms were invited to tender on October 21 last year.
Four firms — Bureau Veritas, SGS, Intertek International and China Certification and Inspection Group, were picked.
REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE
Polucon and Baltic Controls were disqualified on the basis that they did not attach a registration certificate.
However, Polucon said it had been discriminated because it was an indigenous Kenyan company and questioned the integrity of the tender committee.
Polucon also claimed that the document had been attached, the scoring was skewed and that the requirement for previous experience was discriminatory since no local firm had been awarded the tender in the past 20 years, according to Managing Director Dominic Mureithi.
The review board found that Polucon did provide registration certificates.
“The applicant attached a letter of intent to sub-contract Cotecna, which had a presence in several regions. The board therefore finds that the applicant was discriminated against,” adds the ruling.
On staff competence, the board pointed out that Polucon was awarded zero out of five marks yet it had attached CVs of staff. Further, no marks were awarded for the laboratories, yet Polucon’s facilities were accredited by the Kenya Accreditation Service.
The board was chaired by Mr Paul Gicheru and gave the standards bureau 30 days to comply.
