An invitation for bidders dated November 12 2019 being quotation for Trans National Times Sacco Limited based in Kitale, Trans Nzoia county has come to haunt the management tendering process.
The controversial tender involved the quotation for Kiminini branch Fosa construction. Interested bidders were asked to provide quotation for Kiminini for construction and they were to pick the quotation guidelines at Trans National Times Sacco offices of chief executive officer. The quotation was to be addressed to the chairman of the Sacco.
The closing deadline for the quotation to elapse was December 18 2019 almost a month after the invitation was flooded. Since then, issues have been raised in the manner in which the firm that won the tender was eventually awarded.
According to a complaint raised by one of the bidders, the firm was favoured from the word go by top Sacco management and despite being the highest bidder was awarded the tender on what was argued, experience. The experience was based on the fact that he had done such construction works with Trans National Sacco regardless of him having done a shoddy job.
It is said the Sacco chairman, Robert Omari, has been instrumental in favouring the firm which he has interests together with the Sacco CEO George Malaba. It was on this basis that the bidder’s documents were picked from the CEO’s office and quotation done at Omari’s office. Malaba used to work for an Asian firm within Kitale town. He has no papers of any academic value to occupy the CEO slot.
Those involved now want the Sacco management to come clean and make it open in the whole process. It is suspected that the project has been over quoted by Sh1.2 million. Also sucked into the controversial project is Margaret Maube, the chairperson of Sacco supervisory committee. The supervisory committee has always given the Sacco a clean bill of health when a number of anomalies have been noticed.
The Sacco was initially known as Trans Nzoia Teachers Sacco but charged name to Trans National Times Sacco to attract members outside the teaching fraternity. A source within the Sacco top management revealed that the infighting is at the centre stage among the officials with a section accusing the CEO Malaba and the chairman of engaging in corrupt deals. They gave four names of relatives employed purely on nepotism disregarding academic qualifications as by the standards required.
The long serving CEO is said to have been influencing tenders such as supply of marketing materials, computer software and installation of systems. Payments of dividends are also suspicious just like loan processing where managers are said to push for those they know. Members who urgently need loans are forced to part with kickbacks to have them processed. A section of the staff are said to be colluding with cartels to influence loans processing. The looting of the Sacco is on as the members who are supposed to benefit continue suffer and languish in abject poverty.
The CEO is accused of running the Sacco as his personal property and boasts that if removed, the Sacco will ground to a halt as he has been protecting its dirty dealings from various monitoring bodies in Nairobi. The long serving CEO is in his mid 50s who has delayed to marry.
By Citizen Weekly.
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