Hearing date set for disputed laptops tender case

What you need to know:

  • The dispute started when the public procurement board cancelled the contract awarded to Indian firm Olive Telecommunications PVT Ltd
  • The company moved to the High Court to challenge the decision and obtained orders stopping the award on a new tender until the case is determined

Class One pupils in public schools will have to wait longer for the free laptops.

This is after the High Court scheduled the hearing of a suit in the laptops for primary schools project to end of June.

The court set the hearing of the disputed Jubilee government’s pet project to June 30, effectively extending orders barring the Education ministry from proceeding to award the tender afresh as directed by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.

Judges George Kimondo, George Odunga and Mumbi Ngugi also directed the disputing companies in the Sh24.6 billion tender for the supply of 1.3 million laptops, to file their submissions before the hearing date. (READ: CJ names bench to hear laptop case)

The dispute started when the public procurement board cancelled the contract awarded to Indian firm Olive Telecommunications PVT Ltd on grounds that the company did not meet the financial requirement set in the tender document and were not original equipment manufacturers.

The board says the ministry should not have allowed Olive to go past the preliminary stage of the tendering since they failed to provide evidence that Olive had a business relationship with Olive Global Holding Private Ltd, Olive Telecommunications (Hong Kong) and new Century Optronics Company Ltd.

The review board then gave the government 45 days within which to re-evaluate bids by computer firms HPU of the Netherlands and Haier of China and award a new supply tender.

The ministry had awarded the tender to Olive at a cost of Sh24.6 billion, which the board found was Sh1.4 billion more than the price quoted by the winning bidder before negotiations with the ministry.

DECISION CHALLENGED

The company moved to the High Court to challenge the decision and obtained orders stopping the award on a new tender until the case is determined. (READ: Indian firm in court over cancelled laptops deal)

Olive Telecommunications argued that the board’s decision to cancel its tender was a breach of their rights and based on falsehoods concerning the status of the company.

It wants the Ministry of Education stopped from proceeding to re-evaluate bids by computer firms HPU of the Netherlands and Haier of China, with the aim of awarding either of them the tender for the supply and installation of computers in primary schools across the country.

The company submitted that the board acted unreasonably in finding that they did not meet the experience required under the tender document since all the information regarding the consortium partners was contained in its bid documents.

However, in response to the application, Haier Electrical Appliance Ltd claimed the application by Olive was misconceived and lacked the substance to enable review of the procurement board’s decision.

Haier wants the case dismissed and the Ministry of Education allowed to proceed with the tendering as directed by the procurement review board.