A fixed-term employment contract is a contractual agreement between an employer and an employee that lasts for a specified time period.
Ten private companies won 38.2 percent of the tenders awarded by State entities in the four years to June 2022, underlining the concentration of lucrative government contracts in the hands of a few firms.
Data from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) shows the 10 companies won tenders worth Sh220.9 billion during the period out of a total of Sh577.07 billion contracts State agencies issued during the period.
The data tracks tenders issued by entities such as ministries, departments, parastatals, counties, public universities, commissions, Parliament, Judiciary, public schools and colleges and published in the Public Procurement Information Portal (PPIP).
“The ten suppliers awarded 1,025 contracts worth Sh220,900,218,319. This represents 38 percent of the total of contracts published over the period under consideration,” said the PPRA.
Minet Kenya Insurance Brokers Limited is the company that has won the largest share of government tenders having secured 18 contracts worth Sh50.7 billion during the four-year period.
Minet has been the pick of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to provide insurance cover for more than 350,000 teachers. The firm was awarded a multi-billion-shilling teachers insurance contract in July 2015 before it was renewed in 2019.
The deal was renewed in December 2022 at a valuation of about Sh53 billion, attracting the scrutiny of Members of Parliament (MPs).
Frontier Engineering Limited emerged second having won a Sh48.35 billion tender followed by M and J Holdings Limited and China Jiangxi International Kenya Limited who bagged one contract each valued at Sh33.34 billion and Sh19.98 billion respectively.
North Street Cooling Tower (P) Limited won a record 982 or 3.8 percent of the number of government tenders issued during the period whose cumulative value was Sh16.1 billion.
Peminje Holdings Limited got a singular contract of Sh16 billion, China State Construction Engineering Corp (Kenya) Limited won two worth Sh11.97 billion while the China Communication Construction Company got a Sh9.45 billion tender during the period.
Closing the list were West Travel and Tours Limited that bagged 17 State tenders totalling Sh7.97 billion and Value Zone Limited which got one contract for Sh7 billion.
During the period, some 43,195 tenders were advertised by State agencies out of which 25,674 contracts worth Sh577.07 billion were issued.
On the nature of contracts published on the portal, a majority of them were on works (77 percent) followed by non-consultancy services (13 percent), goods (eight percent) while consultancy services closed the list with two percent.
Not all the State contracts were published, but the PPRA is seeking to increase the number of contracts disclosed on the portal as well as disposal contracts to boost transparency in public procurement.
“The Authority has institutionalised measures aimed at strengthening publication of contract awards by all procuring entities. This has included a directive to ensure that no physical reports are submitted to the Authority,” said the PPRA.
Institute of Public Finance CEO James Muraguri said that the PPRA report underscores the gap in adhering to public procurement and asset disposal edicts by State organs and public entities, including equality, freedom from discrimination, affirmative action, equity, the promotion of local industry, and the support of citizen contractors.
Mr Muraguri added that restricting access to the beneficial ownership register to certain competent authorities is also curtailing progress towards entrenching transparency in public procurement.
“Moving forward, the government could enhance its transparency efforts by making the beneficial ownership register publicly available, as done in other countries like Ghana, and implement enforcement measures for information provision through the PPIP portal as part of the Access to Information initiatives,” he said.
