We should be careful not to be tied to corrupt deals with Chinese firms
What you need to know:
- According the Deputy President, Mr Herbert Ojwang, who blew the whistle on the matter, should be dismissed as a sour loser who was involved in a scheme that would have committed the Eldoret hospital to an opaquely negotiated transaction.
- This is what you see when you study the manner in which the international tender inviting expressions of interest from international construction companies has been crafted by the Ministry of Health.
- Tellingly, the advert also says that part of the responsibility of the chosen contractor will be to “negotiate competitive project financing through concessionary loans and grants”.
Deputy President William Ruto has publicly admitted that he cancelled the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital upgrade project because it was procured corruptly.
He has argued that the greenfield and completely new project, which he now supports, is going to save the country billions of shillings.
According the Deputy President, Mr Herbert Ojwang, who blew the whistle on the matter, should be dismissed as a sour loser who was involved in a scheme that would have committed the Eldoret hospital to an opaquely negotiated transaction.
I am willing to give the Deputy President the benefit of the doubt on some of these assertions. There is no doubt at all that the China Wu Yi company was about to commit public resources to an arrangement conducted under very low transparency standards. The parties just sat in smoke-filled rooms to negotiate and conjure up prices.
When they say that the buildings and the equipment were going to cost Sh14 billion, how was this figure arrived at? Who did the bill of quantities and on what basis? Why was the project not subjected to international competitive bidding? Where is the feasibility study?
Yet the hospital’s top managers were gallivanting all over the place, flying in and out of the country, visiting different manufacturers in the US and China, ostensibly to discuss and negotiate prospective deals.
However, I still insist that in describing the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s upgrade as a corrupt deal, Mr Ruto was merely playing politics.
If the deal was indeed corrupt as he says, why is the Deputy President not asking the top management of the hospital to step aside to pave way for investigations? Those top managers at the Eldoret referral hospital who have been globe-trotting on contractor-sponsored junkets should be made to answer hard questions.
I think China Wu Yi must also be taken to task as they were the architects of the whole deal. They sent teams to Eldoret to meetings where they made exaggerated promises, including a pledge to arrange and negotiate China Exim Bank loans on behalf of the board and management of the hospital.
China is not Mr Santa Claus. These days, cases where Chinese construction companies are debarred and suspended from participating in projects funded by the World Bank, the Africa Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank are commonplace.
In most cases, they have been punished mainly for committing public institutions in Africa to irregularly procured mega infrastructure projects.
Last year, the World Bank announced the debarment of the Chinese State-owned enterprise, China International Water and Electric, after investigations by its integrity vice-presidency discovered that the company had misrepresented its experience during the procurement of a World Bank-sponsored hydro power project in Africa.
We must make sure that we do not fall victim to opaque dealings with Chinese contractors. The sense I get is that the greenfield project supported by the Deputy President is headed in the same direction. The signs are that the whole thing is tilted to favour Chinese contractors.
This is what you see when you study the manner in which the international tender inviting expressions of interest from international construction companies has been crafted by the Ministry of Health.
In an advert that appeared in the local daily newspapers on March 3, the government said that it intended to build the new hospital from yet-to-be-negotiated loans from the China Exim Bank, clearly, the message in this advert is that the contract will be reserved for Chinese companies.
Tellingly, the advert also says that part of the responsibility of the chosen contractor will be to “negotiate competitive project financing through concessionary loans and grants”.
We are back to opaque and so-called Chinese contractor-negotiated loans. Yes, the Chinese will lend you the money, but the loans will ended up tying your hands to opaquely procure deals open to manipulation by well-connected local backers of Chinese companies.
Make no mistake, I am not opposed to the proposed greenfield hospital in Eldoret. However, let us open up the whole thing by subjecting the process to proper international competitive bidding.
