The High Court has cancelled a decision by the procurement appeals agency awarding UAP Life Assurance a multimillion-shilling tender for civil servants’ insurance.
Justice John Mativo quashed the decision after two other firms - Britam and Pioneer Assurance - sued the Public Procurement Administrative and Review Board for awarding UAP the deal.
The judge in his decision said
PPARB acted in excess of its powers by ruling that UAP’s bid was the best option. The judge added UAP was only an interested party in the initial appeal hence the PPARB was wrong to declare it the lowest evaluated bidder for the cover for more than 400,000 civil servants.
He held that the PPARB was restricted to determining issues based on the submissions by the principal parties, which were the Britam-Pioneer consortium and CIC Insurance.
“By purporting to evaluate and determine the responsiveness of the bid by UAP, the board acted unfairly and in excess of its powers in that it encroached into the mandate of the tender evaluation committee. Such an irregularity is fundamental and taints the decision.”
He ruled that the review board went beyond its powers in awarding the tender to an interested party (UAP) who was not a principal party before it. Mativo further ruled that the board failed to appreciate that the issues to be determined always remain the issues as presented by the principal parties, or as framed by the court from the pleadings and submissions of the principal parties.
He said a letter by CIC to the PPARB, which led to the underwriter included as an interested party, was filed outside the 14-day window for appeals after the tender committee declared a winner.
The NHIF had initially awarded Britam and Pioneer the tender and advanced them Sh435.1 million which the two used to insure 256,029 civil servants.
But CIC filed an appeal against NHIF, Britam and Pioneer before the PPARB. CIC also enjoined UAP as an interested party. Britam and Pioneer had bid together, on a 52 per cent to 48 per cent sharing ratio.