Wamalwa, PS Patrick Mwangi clash over Sh62bn tender

Tender wars have erupted at the Water ministry pitting Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa against his Principal Secretary Patrick Mwangi in what is likely to derail the Sh62.3 billion Thwake dam in Kitui County.

Mr Mwangi told Parliament that he had turned down a directive by Mr Wamalwa demanding the award of the contract to a Chinese firm that had been blacklisted by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB) over “integrity issues”.

The PS said the minister wrote to him on March 7 asking that the multi-billion shilling contract be awarded to China Gezhouba Construction Group Corporation to construct the dam, and three days later, the CS informed AfDB–the financiers, of the same.

“I confirm that on March 7, I received a memo from the CS and in response, I turned down the instructions, given that the matters are under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Agriculture committee of the National Assembly,” Mr Mwangi told MPs on Tuesday.

The PS said he had no knowledge of the letter written to the AfDB by Mr Wamalwa communicating that China Gezhouba had been awarded the contract, having been evaluated as the lowest bidder.

AWARD CONTRACT

He confirmed that China Gezhouba had used experience of one of its subsidiaries-China Engineering Company Number 1, which had been barred by the World Bank and AfDB from bidding for the dam. MPs are investigating the circumstances under which the ministry is seeking to award the contract to a firm that had been barred by the institutions.

Mr Wamalwa last week disclosed that the ministry is at the tail-end of awarding the tender to China Gezhouba.

The Water ministry also awarded the company the controversial Sh6.8 billion Northern Water Collector Tunnel in Murang’a, which the Opposition claims breached an environmental audit.

The World Bank blacklisted China Gezhouba for procurement irregularities, but did not offer details of the breach.

Mr Wamalwa acknowledged the existence of a problem in the search for the contractor, given that the losing bidder raised integrity issues against the winner.
Another Chinese firm, Sinohydro, contested the award to China Gezhouba, citing the ban.

“There were issues of integrity which could not be overlooked and these concerns were raised with AfDB, which said the debarment of this particular company was for a particular period which had elapsed at the time this contract came into being,” Mr Wamalwa said.

SKIPPED MEETING

“With the advice of the Attorney- General, which we sought after the contest between the two companies, we are acting on it in terms of recommendation by Attorney-General as well as AfDB to award the contract to the lowest bidder as had been recommended by the evaluation committee,” said Mr Wamalwa.

The CS skipped Tuesday’s session and sent Mr Mwangi to represent him in the deliberations.

The committee criticised Mr Wamalwa for firing a protest letter to Parliament accusing MPs of attempting “to block the project” and faulting them on the way they handled the matter.

Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa accused Mr Wamalwa of trying to direct what Parliament does and asked Mr Mwangi to state whether the House had issued any directive to stop the procurement.

“The CS is questioning how we became seized of this matter. The CS has no mandate to make this claim that we have stopped the project,” he said.

Committee chairman Mohammed Noor ordered Mr Wamalwa to appear before MPs tomorrow to respond to the procurement issues and the letter of protest against the committee investigations.