The Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) has ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to revise its tender for a new Integrated Elections Management System, following scrutiny of the bid document issued in August.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The ruling followed a challenge to the tender over disputed requirements, including how hardware and technology ownership would be assessed, as well as the clarity of the criteria for evaluating bids.

The Board found that parts of the tender, including provisions concerning hardware and technology ownership, were not sufficiently clear to guide bidders or ensure objective evaluation.

It warned that the shortcomings could affect the constitutional requirements for transparency, fairness, equality and competitiveness in public procurement.

📌 What You Need to Know

Rather than cancelling the tender, the Board directed the electoral commission to correct the disputed sections and publish an amended version.

It further ordered that prospective bidders be given at least seven days to study the changes and prepare their bids.

The ruling also allows the electoral agency to obtain technical guidance from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) while making the required amendments.

The decision comes days after the commission admitted that its tender contained an error requiring successful bidders to provide performance security equivalent to 20 per cent of the contract value, against the legal limit of 10 per cent.

IEBC said at the time that it had identified the mistake and was preparing an addendum to rectify it, while maintaining that the procurement itself remained valid.

The developments come amid intensified scrutiny of the proposed Ksh6.5 billion technology procurement ahead of the 2027 General Election.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke