Poll agency brushed off warning on ballots deal
What you need to know:
- Aero Vote Ltd, which was one of the prospective bidders to supply election materials, questioned Smith & Ouzman’s capacity.
- In reply, IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan maintained that commission had confirmed Smith & Ouzman’s capacity to undertake the work in time.
The electoral commission was accused of courting a storm when it picked British Smith & Ouzman to supply ballot papers without placing a tender.
It was three months to the General Election and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) insisted on single sourcing, saying they had chosen the firm because of limited time for competitive bidding.
The commission came under heavy criticism, with those opposed to the single sourcing arguing that it would not ensure better value for taxpayers’ money at the lowest price.
However, IEBC Chairman Issack Hassan defended the commission’s decision.
He said that Smith & Ouzman made it clear that within three weeks, it would sub-contract two other companies to print, package, and ship the ballot papers.
However, another British company, Aero Vote Ltd, which was one of the prospective bidders to supply election materials, had questioned Smith & Ouzman’s capacity.
Managing Director Chirag Sheth had said no company in the world had the capability to single-handedly prepare, print and supply such a huge number of ballot papers and result sheets in less than two months.
Mr Sheth wrote a protest letter to the Public Procurement Oversight Authority and copied it to the government.
He warned that if the work was sub-contracted, the IEBC would not have control, thereby introducing a security risk due to the numerous actors involved, or face challenges similar to those faced in the Ghana elections in 2012.
PRINT AND SUPPLY
In reply, Mr Hassan maintained that commission had confirmed Smith & Ouzman’s capacity to undertake the work in time.
Smith & Ouzman received Sh3 billion to print and supply an estimated 120 million ballot papers.
Mr Hassan criticised Aero Vote, saying, it were complaining about sub-contracting, yet the same company had written to Smith & Ouzman asking to be given some of the work of printing and supplying the ballot papers.
Eventually, two firms, Kalamazoo Secure Solutions and Ren-Form CC, moved to the High Court challenging IEBC’s decision to award the contract to S&O.
