Suppliers have poured cold water on the State’s tender for the supply of devices for metering consumption of cooking gas based on the amount paid, new disclosures showed, scuttling the revival of the project that was supposed to sell gas cylinders to low-income households at subsidised prices.
The State Department for Petroleum said in a budget proposal report submitted to the Treasury that it advertised for the tender for the suppliers of smart metering devices but did not receive any bids.
The smart metering devices were to be fitted on six-kilogramme liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders. The State was then to deliver the gas-filled cylinders to targeted households and then the meters would help beneficiaries monitor their consumption and, at the same time, mimic their daily fuel consumption.
The meters were also to allow for a pay-per-use model, meaning customers could even pay to access gas for preparing a day’s meal and then the LPG would automatically disconnect when what has been paid for is exhausted.
The State had targeted 170,000 households in 2021/2022 and 100,000 in each of the subsequent financial years up to June 2024.
However, this project, which had by the end of June last year used about Sh1.12 billion, could not take off in the absence of the meters.
“Target not achieved due to non-responsive bids for the supply of smart metering devices for the 6Kgs LPG cylinders and changes in the specifications for the 6 kg cylinders to facilitate their traceability,” says the State department.
The lack of interest from suppliers marks the latest setback to the scheme dubbed Mwananchi Gas Project that started in 2016, under which the State was to sell the six-kg gas cylinders through the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (Nock) at a subsidised price of Sh2,000.
The project was to reach about 1.2 million low-income households, and raise the LPG uptake in the country from about 10 percent to 70 percent and cut the use of biomass and kerosene as the primary source of cooking fuels.
Nock was supposed to distribute the gas-filled cylinders complete with accessories such as a burner and grill and trading under the brand name Gas Yetu.
The project was rolled out in the financial year 2016/2017 but was off to a bad start with some suppliers delivering faulty cylinders. The Auditor-General reports on the project have pointed to a wastage of money and the lack of clear implementation strategy from the government.
Previous audits had indicated that some 79,057 units of the six-kg gas cylinders supplied under the project were declared faulty by an independent inspector following safety concerns raised by consumers. This led to the suspension of the project in 2019 until 2022 when the State attempted the restart it.
In the audit covering the financial year ended June 2023, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu faulted the government for lacking policies and frameworks to implement the project.
"There were no project implementation plans, strategy detailing how the project was started, overall sustainability plan, beneficially identification mechanism for the LPG cylinders and low burner tabletop cookers. Further, there was no smart metering service and technical support for dispensing LPG from the source point to consumers who constituted the point of use," she observed.
