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{
    "id": 522715,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/522715/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 123,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Chanzu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 11,
        "legal_name": "Yusuf Kifuma Chanzu",
        "slug": "yusuf-chanzu"
    },
    "content": "very short time. For example, you would give notice seven days and within fourteen days, you are awarded. However, because we are dealing with international tenders, we had to combine and look at both the local situation and the time it would take if you advertise internationally, for the procurement entities to go through with the process because of communication. However, with the way communication has now been made much easier through digital communication and so on, it should, therefore, be easier for us to even shorten the time. That is because you can communicate digitally and the information is gotten within time. The only thing that you need to allow is time for documents preparation There is another aspect that we have covered in both levels of governments - the county and the National Government. I notice that it is good because right now, most of the counties do not seem to have any format in which they are doing the procurement. Sometimes, a Governor and his people just sit down and say: “We are going to award this job to so and so.” For example, in Vihiga County, you find that roads are being done all over the place, but they were not advertised. Rather, they were given on friendly basis and yet, no tendering was done. With this law in place, it would be easier for us to get some of those things organized, especially those awards which involve huge sums of money. When you make a mistake with the huge sums that are involved, for example, at the county level, where you give while spending Kshs3 - 6 billion, if you make a mistake there, the losses are so colossal. Therefore, the law here is soon going to remove ambiguity wherever there is and make it much easier for all those who are participating in the tender process to get information through the adverts that are necessary and are specified in this law. The mode of procurement - open tender to stage tendering and many others - is specified here. They are going to make it easier for procuring entities to choose what they want based on what they want to achieve at the end. The aspect of corruption, which we have talked about severally, is also covered here in Section 61 of the Bill. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is very precise here. The only thing that I expect is penalties for Clauses 61 and 62. They should have come immediately after the provisions of the clauses. However, what has happened is that they have been covered under the general penalties in Clause 178. On the issue of corruption which we really want to combat, apart from proper management of the procurement process, Clause 61 of the Bill says that: “A tender, proposal or quotation submitted by a person shall include a declaration that the person will not engage in any corrupt practice and a declaration that the person or his or her sub-contractors are not debarred from participating in procurement proceedings.” This is very important because it has to come out very clearly so that those who are participating in the tenders will know very well that there is a penalty for that. The penalties for that have been put under Clause 178. Maybe, we will bring some amendments to say that the penalties should be proportional to the kind of offences committed because Clause 178 talks about a penalty of about Kshs4 million. It says:- “A person convicted of an offence under this Act for which no penalty is provided shall be liable upon conviction— The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}