Two Japanese firms risk ban over tender

Two Japanese firms that verify cars, mobile equipment and spare parts risk being banned from conducting business in Kenya after a parliamentary team found that they provided fake documents to win a Sh2.7 billion tender.

The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) says in an inquiry report that M/s Autoterminal Japan and EAA Company provided forged documents to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs).

The team says Kebs received fake documents from the two Japanese firms during the tender for procurement of additional firms to undertake pre-export verification of motor vehicles, mobile equipment and spare parts.

Kebs has been on the spot over its plan to expand the contract currently held by Quality Inspection Services Japan (QISJ) to other players.

The standards body signed the three-year tender with QISJ on April 3, 2018, to inspect used motor vehicles, mobile equipment and used spare parts in Japan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Thailand and South Africa.

The contract is set to expire in April next year but Kebs has tendered for additional partners to supplement the existing contract.

The House team probed Kebs’s decision to commence expansion of PVOC on used motor vehicles, mobile equipment and used spare-parts.

“Overall, Autorterminal Japan (ATJ)…had gross misrepresentation on its technical proposal and should therefore be subjected to proceedings of the law as they contravened section 41(1) (h) of the Public Procurement Disposal Act, 2015 and in such events recommend that it would be appropriate for relevant institutions to initiate debarment proceedings against such bidders,” the report, signed by Abdulswamad Nassir states.

The committee says the authenticity of documents attached as part of the technical proposals indicated a serious red flag on the credibility of ATJ as a company.

EAA Company was found to have attached a lease deed dated May 1, 2014 in the tender documents which seemed forged as there was no presence of EAA in the United Kingdom at the time.

“Overally, EAA has been knowingly providing falsified documents in the past and present tender submissions and thereby failed to meet the threshold of the tender as they didn’t have any physical and technological infrastructure required to satisfactorily perform services required under this tender in the United Kingdom, Japan and The United Arabs Emirates.”

The Auditor General had flagged the two companies in a special report on the procurement of pre-export verification of conformity (PVOC) to Standard Services for used motor vehicles, mobile equipment and used spare-parts by the Kenya Bureau of Standards.

The audit recommended debarment of the two firms for falsifying documents and misrepresenting themselves in tender that was later won by Quality Inspection Services Japan (QISJ).

The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) informed the committee during the inquiry that it had started the process of banning the two firms from conducting business in Kenya.