The Star won MyGov tender fair and square – PS Kisiang’ani

The government has moved to dispel claims that the Star Publication won a tender to circulate and print MyGov in the Star newspaper unfairly.

Information, Communications and the Digital Economy Principal Secretary Edward Kisiang’ani said claims that there was no tendering are untrue and misleading.

The Star Publications won the tender late last year and currently prints and distributes 100,000 copies of the newspaper for free every Tuesday.

Each of the copies contains MyGov pullout, a government newspaper containing tenders and all government communications.

The Star Publication is now the sole printers and distributors of MyGov, giving the paper a wide presence on all the online and broadcasting channels run by the Convergence Africa Media.

Contracts with four other dailies expired in December last year.

In a notice from the Ministry to all Principal Secretaries, CEOs of State Corporations, Independent Commissions and vice chancellor of public universities, all adverts will be printed and distributed by the Star.

The deal has been seen to starve Daily Nation, The Standard and The People Daily millions of shillings they previously enjoyed from printing and circulating the government adverts through MyGov.

In a press address on Wednesday, Kisiang’ani said the Government advertised the tender on September 26, 2023 on MyGov which was circulated by the Daily Nation.

He noted that the tender was closed on October 11, 2023 and the bids opened the same day.

He said bidders for the tender were Mediamax Network, Nation Media Group, Convergence Africa (The Star Publications), Postal Corporation of Kenya, Savin Ltd and the Standard Group.

The PS said evaluation of the tender took place on December 14, 2023 where three bidders sailed through to the final stage (National Media Group, Mediamax Network and Convergence Africa).

“The Standard Group was unresponsive so claims by some of its employees that there was no tendering is untrue. They were disqualified because they did not bring documents showing their print run in the last six months,” he explained.

Kisiang’ani added that Savin failed to meet Kenya Revenue Authority compliance while Postal Corporation only bid for distribution.

The PS noted that the final negotiations were done on December 13, 2023.

He said Nation quoted Sh720 000 per page which would amount to Sh28 million for a 40 page MyGov pullout.

“We offered Sh350,000 per page but they refused,” the PS added.

He said Mediamax on the other hand quoted Sh591,000 per page which amounted to Sh23 million for a 40-page MyGov paper.

The PS said the ministry offered Sh250,000 per page but Mediamax declined the offer.

Kisiang’ani said Convergence Africa Media offered a flat rate of Sh9 million for every MyGov pullout.

“As your PS, what was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to go for the highest bidder for the job. Are you saying I should have ignored the lowest bidder?,” he posed.

He said the government has not discriminated against any media house in its activities.

“Nobody has discriminated against anybody based on their political orientation. If we are not discriminating against you the media, do not discriminate against us,” he added.

The PS further announced that the government has reduced expenditure on advertisements by 47 per cent.

“We are channeling some of this money to critical areas in service delivery,” he said.

A circular from the Treasury in 2015 communicated a Cabinet decision to centralise public sector advertising, by creating the government advertising agency (GAA) as the coordinating institution for all public sector advertisements, announcements and other official notices.

Two years later, another circular from the Office of the President established MyGov as not only the official government medium for all public sector print advertisement but also as a mouthpiece for propagating government development agenda through in-depth editorial content that cuts across all segments of the public sector.