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{
    "id": 40785,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/40785/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 274,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thought I did. But just to repeat myself, the contract was awarded based on the technical negotiations that took place between the opening of the envelopes and negotiations with the contractor. I was not in the Ministry then. Immediately I moved into the Ministry, people started calling telling me that this contract was very expensive and so forth. I took my time to call for the documents and to review what we had entered into as a Government with this particular contract. In reviewing these documents, using my own experience as a consultant, I picked up that, perhaps, the rates quoted looked excessive, much as they were not necessarily required for quality based. This is because we were not using the costing to actually make a decision. But the rates that were contained in the documents that was given, looked to me to be too high. Based on that, I said we could not operate on rates that purport to show a driver being paid Kshs300,000 per week. We need to bring those rates to realistic levels. It is on the basis of that that I forced a re-negotiation of the contract. The consultants agreed to the re-negotiation although the work was already ongoing because of the special circumstances. That is why I said I should have been receiving congratulations for saving rather than condemnation. Had I not picked it up, we would have paid the full amount. It was contracted based on the tendering method that was used. I only did it because I got concerned that, perhaps, we were not getting the best value. Looking deeper into the document behind the actual contract, I was able to find there was a potential overcharge and we had reductions done based on that. That is the genesis of the re- negotiations. It was not required by any law. No auditor who picked it up, but it was my own initiative."
}