It is about six months to the General Election where Kenyans are expected to exercise their sovereign right in electing their next leadership for the next five years.
Politicians are campaigning with various economic models, dishing out ostentatious pledges, some meant to hoodwink the gullible voter.
Today, the government is considering cancelling more than 457 stalled projects. Some were part of the last election campaign promises.
The World Bank says most of these stalled projects including roads, office blocks and dams were started in breach of guidelines that require secure funding, a lack a cost-benefit analysis, standardised appraisal and selection plans, effectively failing to match expenditure to available financial resources raising concerns on planning and public spending decisions.
Among the stalled projects is the Northern Corridor, which has 22 stalled projects requiring Sh798 billion to get to completion, the water, irrigation and Environment ministry, which has 216 dormant projects.
The public procurement law is clear on the procedures to be followed on public-private partnerships and government contracts. The recent blacklisting of more than 20 Kenyan firms by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and World Bank as well as the stalled projects indicate a lack of due diligence in the procurement, selection of contractors and the administration of contracts.
One wonders if there was a feasibility study done before commissioning these projects, a procurement plan, a work breakdown structure detailing the nature of activities and their proposed completion dates or if the contractors were duly appraised, among other prerequisites.
Over the years, Kenyans have complained about the citizen contractors in terms of the quality of construction works, the speed at which they undertake their work, exaggerated contract costs, elongated project duration, poor workmanship and the rate at which such projects stall.
The AfDB says the backlisting of the firms was due to engaging in fraudulent activities and quality concerns.
According to the International Association for Contracts and Commercial Management, without clear objectives, contracts become daunting. Both parties are at risk of signing without being entirely being sure of everything the agreement they are entering into consists of.
Public procurement contracts pass through various complex stages, starting with the primary stage of bidding in which a project is awarded to a contractor. Awarding such lucrative government tenders to a suitable contractor is a difficult process marred by manipulations and vested political interests.
The traditional open tender procurement method, which focuses on the lowest bidder leaves much room for manipulation of the procurement process.
Best value procurement is designed to increase project value by mitigating risks and increasing transparency underscoring the pre-award phase.
An effective contract management process must ensure higher efficiency at every stage of the contract cycle, which in turn maximises value for money to the organisation.
According to the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission, contract award in most public institutions is still prone to bribery, inflation of prices, tampering with contractor documents, nepotism, especially in counties, political interference, shoddy works, lobbying, vested interest by the top management and non-compliance to procedures.
The net economic effects of the stalled project include increased litigation, loss of jobs, accumulated pending bills, ballooning costs due to cost variations and cancellation, increased bank interests, some contractors being auctioned because failure to pay bank loans, and subsequently denying the economy much need cash flow for economic growth and development.
Because of these pitfalls, developed countries like the USA, Netherlands, Germany, France have shifted to the Best Value Procurement system (BVS).
This shift in paradigm was reached at by following a sequence of elements with the principles of transparency, performance information measuring and contractor clarification.
The BVS philosophy has been extremely successful in the Netherlands which has practiced it in many of its projects. Best value procurement (BVP) is a procurement system that looks at other key performance metrics other than just price, such as quality and expertise when selecting vendors or contractors.
The traditional open tender procurement method, which focuses on the lowest bidder leave much room for manipulation of the procurement process. Best value procurement is designed to increase project value by mitigating risks and increasing transparency underscoring the pre-award phase.
In the best value system, the value of procured goods or services can be simply described as a comparison of costs and benefits.
The process of political transition should be seamless such that those gaining political power are able to continue with the government projects left by their predecessors to reduce the number of stalled state projects.
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