Court upholds Chinese firm’s right to supervise railway construction
What you need to know:
- Team Engineering had asked the court to nullify the decision by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board delivered on June 24 2014.
- The aggrieved tenderer held that they never received an official communication informing it of the failed process.
A Chinese firm can now go ahead and supervise work on the standard gauge railway after the High Court in Nairobi declined to quash the tender it was awarded.
Justice George Odunga on Monday dismissed a bid by Team Engineering SPA to reverse the award of the tender to supervise the railway construction saying there was no bias in the award of the contract.
He further said the decision to enter a deal with the procuring entity was not subject of the application.
“The court will not inquire whether the procurement body in fact favoured one side unfairly. The reason is plain enough. To grant the orders in the manner sought herein would not achieve what the applicant intended… since it would not necessarily lead to nullification of the decision of the procuring entity,” the judge said.
Team Engineering had asked the court to nullify the decision by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board delivered on June 24 2014, awarding the contract to TSDI/APEC/EDON.
They alleged that the firm was a sister company to China Roads and Bridges Corporation which landed the multi-billion standard gauge railway tender.
The cause of action arose from a tender floated by Kenya Railways Corporation inviting bidders for consultancy services for design, review and supervision of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway line.
After receiving nine bids, only three made it through and proceeded to the final stage of evaluation.
NEVER RECEIVED LETTER
However, Team Engineering alleged that they were only informed that the deal had already been sealed when they visited the KRC headquarters.
This prompted Team Engineering to seek the intervention of the procurement review board.
However, they were told that their request for a review was time barred and that the board lacked jurisdiction to entertain the review as the contract had already been signed.
The board threw out their application, prompting the proceedings at the High Court.
The aggrieved tenderer held that they never received an official communication informing it of the failed process.
The company said it never received a letter which Kenya Railways allegedly said it sent by post. “No such letter was ever sent or received and there was no attempt to dispute lack of service,” it says.
