All is not well at Kenya Roads Board after Director General Rashid Mohamed colluded with the owner of Vickers Security Services to win a lucrative tender in what has culminated in the review against the decision by the accounting officer in relation to tender No KRB/T/12/2023-2024 for provision of private security services at KRB headquarters.
In the tender, the provision of security includes KRB regional offices for 12 months and further extension of one year subject to satisfactory performance contract and approval.
Lavington Security Limited has applied for the review of the tender at the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board in on July 25 2024 citing KRB as respondent while Vickers Security and Hounslow Security Limited as interested parties.
PPARB members present were George Murugu (chairman) Lillian Ogombo (member), Alexander Musau (member), Philomena Kiprop (holding brief for acting secretary) and Evelyn Weru (secretariat).
The PPARB is an independent board that reviews, hears and determines disputes related to tendering and asset disposal. The board’s members are appointed by the cabinet, and the Director General of PPRA appoints secretary to the board. PPRA Director General is Hasnat Qureshi.
Vickers Security managing director is Bashir Abdillahi who is close to former Private Security Regulatory Authority Director General Fazul Mohamed.
This emerges as the controversial KRB boss graced the Somali cultural festival held at Two Rivers where the owner of Vickers Security Shabelo Abdul, Fazul and Bashir were present. Also in attendance was then Sports, Heritage and Culture cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed.
A brief we have is that Rashid pushed for Vickers Security to win the tender at all costs.
At KRB, Rashid is a millionaire thanks for his allure for making deals due to his involvement in suspicious tender deals in construction. He is a feared person and manages the parastatal as his personal property.
In the controversial tender whose deadline for application was June 14 2024, bidders were Vigil Max Security, Lelo Security Services, Vickers Security, Hounslow Security Ltd, Lavington Security Ltd, Babs Security Ltd, Bingwa Security Services Ltd and Canon Security Services K Ltd.
At the end of financial evaluation stage, bidders were ranked considering the PSRA set minimum wage of Sh30,000 per guard per month thus Vickers Security emerged first with a total of Sh13,730,400 and wage per guard per month of Sh45,000, Lavington Security came second with a total of Sh8,706,000 with wage per guard per month of Sh29,000 while Hounslow became third with a total of Sh6,348,000 and wage per security guard per month of Sh21,000.
Our spot check established that Vickers Security guards do not earn the alleged Sh45,000 per month but the salary scale was inflated to lock out other bidders as it was found to be the only one to be within the minimum wage that as guided by PSRA.
Just before the application for the tender ended on June 14, PSRA on June 11 said some private security firms are yet to comply with a directive to pay their staff a minimum wage of Sh30,000.
Those who had not complied with the directive had until June 17 to do so, the authority said on June 10.
Then CEO Fazul said despite numerous reminders, some private security companies had failed declined or refused to submit their duly signed and commissioned legal commitments.
The evaluation committee recommended award of the subject tender to Vickers Security claiming it was the lowest bidder at a total of Sh13,730,400 through a professional opinion prepared by deputy director supply chain management Isaak Ibrahim.
Tenders were notified of the outcome of evaluation of the subject tender vide letters dated July 11 2024.
Lavington Security manager Raymond Koech signed a request through Chege and Sang Advocates seeking the declaration that the procuring entity breached the provisions of the public procurement and disposal Act, the notification letter dated July 11 2024 be quashed, and that the tender be nullified and the security company be awarded the tender.
The PPARB through acting secretary James Kilaka notified KRB of the request for the review and the suspension of the procurement proceedings for the subject tender.
On July 30 2024, KRB filed through Catherine Kassim a memorandum of response.
After each party submitted, the board considered their cases, documents, pleadings, oral and written submissions, list and bundle of authorities together with confidential documents submitted to the board, it was ordered that the request for review dated July 25 2024 is struck due for want of jurisdiction, the procuring entity proceed with the procurement process and that each party shall bear its own costs in the request for review.
That is the controversy that revolves around how KRB awarded the security service contract to Vickers Security Limited for being the only company to comply with a new law on the remuneration of security guards, piling the pressure on firms eyeing public tenders.
Although Vickers quoted the highest fee, the state agency said it was the only bidder that complied with the compensation terms for its guards as set by the PSRA, which was recently established under the private security regulation Act during Fazul tenure.
The state agency also argued that failure to meet the basic minimum monthly wages as set out by the PSRA could not be wished away.
The PPARB documents show that Hounslow “indicated that it sought clarification on this new requirement that was not provided for in the Tender Document and that vide a letter dated July 17th 2024, the Procuring Entity informed it that this was a mandatory requirement.” Vickers Security top brass. Somali cartel that runs the show at Kenya Roads Board.
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