Bribery claims surface in Sh14bn tender award

Dar es Salaam. Serious allegations of corruption have surfaced in connection with the award of a Sh14 billion land project tender by the Prime Minister’s Office and the World Bank.

Already, the tender for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of the Integrated Land Management Information Systems (ILMIS) awarded to M/s IGN France International JV in April, this year, has been faulted by the Public Procurement Appeals Authority (PPAA).

The tender was advertised locally and internationally in February, last year, and the invitation was based on WB procurement guidelines under the supervision of PMO through its Project Implementation Unit (PIU).

The deadline for submitting tenders was mid-April, last year, whereby seven tenders were received and after a year of evaluation, the deal worth $6,623,600 (Sh13.9 billion) was awarded to M/s IGN France International JV early this year.

PPAA has ruled that the award of the tender was irregular and reliable sources familiar have confided to The Citizen that money did change hands.

It is alleged that PIU went ahead and manipulated the tender documents of the French company so that it could be seen to be experienced in the field for reportedly completing a similar project in Benin. 

In its ruling, PPAA was skeptical about the Benin project and “did not establish the source of evaluators’ information as it was not included in the successful tender”.

However, the PMO has refuted allegations of corruption in the awarding the tender.

The PMO project coordinator, Mr Barney Laseko, told The Citizen last week that due procedure was followed and that the process was clean and aboveboard.

In yet another interesting development, sources within PMO alleged that the Israeli firm, M/s Sivan Designs D.S. Ltd, offered them a $1 million (Sh2 billion) bribe to facilitate the company’s selection as the winner.

It was the Israeli firm that lodged an appeal with PPAA, challenging the grounds of its disqualification and claiming that the French company had no proven experience to undertake projects of ILMIS nature.

Reached for comment, Sivan Designs D.S. CEO Shlomi Sivan said, “Unfortunately, after seeing the findings by PPAA, I can’t say that I’m amazed or shocked by any statement of officials in the PMO PIU. After all, a man will do or say almost anything under pressure,” he said.

PPAA concluded that it could have quashed the award decision since it was unlawful, but had no powers to do so.