The electoral commission is on the spot over illegally varying contract content to three times the quoted amount leading to loss of millions of taxpayers’ money.
Auditor General Edward Ouko says the IEBC inflated the tender for the procurement of Biometric Voter Registration system vendor support and maintenance services over and above the amount quoted by the winning firm.
In his 2015-16 audit report, Ouko says the IEBC illegally altered and varied the contract amount from Sh31.7 million quoted by the same vendor in 2012 to an inflated price of Sh93.3 million per year.
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Ouko says the amount incurred by the IEBC exceeded the Sh39.5 million quoted by the same firm in the 2013 tender documents.
“Although the commission has explained that vendor support is important in realising the benefits of the huge investment in the BVR system, the basis upon which these rates were determined has not been explained,” reads the audito's report.
The auditor asks why the contract was cancelled and later reawarded at the inflated cost to the very firm without proper justification.
“In view of the matters disclosed above, it is evident that the contract contents were altered contrary to the requirements of Article 227 (1) of the Constitution of Kenya on fairness, equity, transparency, competitiveness and cost effectiveness,” said the auditor.
The auditor has revealed how taxpayers lost Sh26.6 million in the purchase of goods categorised by the IEBC as specialised materials for use in mass voter registration and by-elections in Nyangores, Kericho and Malindi.
According to the report the commission delivered the materials long after the by-elections had been conducted. “It was noted that records on stores cards were falsified to purport that these goods were received before the by-elections and used for the intended purpose,” reads the report.
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Regarding the BVR vendor system, the commission had on June 11, 2014, approved the direct procurement of the maintenance services. This led to a negotiation team being appointed on October 9 the same year but it was reviewed a month later after the membership was changed.
The committee, which was mandated to negotiate terms of reference, engaged the vendor and recommended award of the contract at Sh157.2 million. However, the contract was cancelled due to lack of funds and the need by the commission to revise the scope of service, said the auditor.
According to the report, the contract was suspiciously reintroduced before the tender committee on October 7, 2015, under a separate tender number and speedily approved six days later.
The Tender Processing Committee then finally recommended the award of the contract at Sh513.5 million spread over five years. Finally the contract for the vendor support was awarded at Sh93.3 million per annum, three times the amount quoted by the firm.