PROCUREMENT OVERSIGHT AUTHORITY HALTS KAA DUTY FREE SHOPS TENDER AWARD
(Posted 28th February 2014)
The Public Procurement Oversight Authority has questioned the validity of the tender award by the Kenya Airport Authority to hand the duty free shops at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport over to a new operator, according to information received from a regular aviation source in Nairobi. It appears now that PPOA took issue with procedural aspects of the tender and now demands a fresh tender to be issued by KAA in line with public procurement regulations.
This will put, for now at least, a halt to the Nuance Group from Switzerland taking over the shops, after KAA initially decided in late 2013 that they won the bidding against several other competing companies. It could not be established if any of the disqualified bidders initiated the review by the PPOA, but suggestions have been made that at least one if not more voiced their grievances to the right ears and now got the result they wanted, a fresh tender bid to be issued under tighter control and oversight. KAA had, citing failures and shortcomings in the pre-qualification documents, disqualified all but Nuance from the bidding, leading already at the time to sharp protests and allegations of a rigged process.
KAA has made it a habit to get all the wrong publicity and attention and has been under the public spotlight over a range of allegations made in the past against the organization’s CEO’s, though the present Managing Director Ms. Lucy Mbugua has so far been spared of the often vitriolic attacks her two immediate predecessors had to endure over decisions they made. Nevertheless, this latest entry in the ‘bad books’ will no doubt leave some marks on her hitherto spotless record too as she was at the time the decision was taken the Acting CEO before being confirmed in her position in mid January. Watch this space.
