Public agencies have been handed a boost after the Treasury activated a new law allowing them to engage more than one vendor for the same item sought.
The new regulations by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u enable the agencies to sign agreements that allow for the supply of goods or services whose quantities and delivery schedules are not definable at the beginning of the contracting period.
“Pursuant to section 141(1) of the Act (Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act,2015), an accounting officer shall apply framework contracting arrangements with respect to (a) indefinite delivery contracts; (b) multiple awards of indefinite quantity; and (c) multiple awards of definite quantity,” he said in a legal notice.
The new law means that procuring entities can now order the required quantity of items once they are determined from a pre-qualified list of suppliers and enter into a contract with one or more suppliers for the specific quantity.
This is advantageous because it saves the procuring entities the trouble, expense, and delays of conducting a new procurement process every time they need to procure for these goods or services.
Previously, the procuring entities had to conduct multiple new tenders to access the goods and services required.
The Treasury said procuring entities will nonetheless still be required to justify the award of tenders to multiple bidders, including the determination that no bidder can meet the full demand within the timeline given.
Other pre-conditions to multiple award contracting cover situations where there is a risk on strategic service delivery if a tender is won by a single bidder.
National interests, emergencies, or security situations may also warrant multiple awards while a procuring entity can approve multiple bidders to ensure maximum participation of disadvantaged groups, and small, micro, and medium enterprises.
Procuring entities will be required to disclose the intention to use multiple awards and have the plan specified in the invitation notice and award criteria.
The maximum number of bidders to be considered for multiple awards, the estimated quantity required during the contract period, the prevailing circumstances of the subject procurement, and the value of the contract must also be disclosed.
The framework provides procedures for efficient public procurement and for asset disposal by State entities.
The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) monitors, assesses, and reviews the public procurement and asset disposal system to ensure it abides by national values and other constitutional provisions.
