Transparent Public Procurement (ELG0005)

• Inclusive Contracting in Elgeyo-Marakwet, Kenya (May 29, 2019)

Promote transparent and accountable public procurement processes and facilitate public oversight on projects management
Commitment Start and End Date: 1st September, 2018 – 31st August, 2020
Lead implementing agency/actor
Department of Finance and Economic Planning
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
Inadequate opportunities for public involvement and information on decisions and poor public understanding of the steps taken and procedures applied during tender advertisement, evaluation, awards and feedback has impeded the accountability and transparency in Kenya’s procurement reform agenda. These impediments have led to suboptimal post-tender project implementation practices in Elgeyo Marakwet County including; delay in projects implementation, cases of projects not done to desired standards, unstructured institutional framework for projects management and limited procurement opportunities for special interest groups. Tenders are awarded to the same contractors regardless of the quality of their previous works which has led to poor quality of public projects. In addition, although there have been gains in form of net-saved funds from efficiencies in project management best practices, oversight by citizens on the prioritization and utilization of these saved funds have been minimal and thus the usage of these funds may be exposed to misuse.
What is the commitment?
In striving to ensure public involvement during procurement decision-making processes, which builds from its 2017 commitment three (3) that sought to improve access to procurement opportunities by special interest groups (youth, women, People with Disabilities) and promote greater public participation in projects implementation, the county government through this commitment seeks to; facilitate enhanced public oversight over government procurement operations by expanding spaces for citizens, CSOs and contractors to give feedback on all procurement decisions outcomes; simplify and publish tender documents including Bills of Quantities (BQs); promote equal access to government procurement opportunities by enhancing appropriate capacities of all listed procurement entities; strengthen involvement of citizens at project implementation to enable them hold poorly performing contractors accountable by providing feedback and; disclose projects implementation net savings so as to broaden the accountability on their usage.
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
This commitment will broaden decision-making process on procurement by creating a fourteen-day window for public commentary on tender evaluation results for all projects i.e. the list of successful and unsuccessful bidders, including reasons and justifications for the selection before contracts are awarded and, establishing public complaints and redress mechanisms to address emerging disputes. The commitment will also strengthen public knowledge by developing, publishing and carrying out civic education on procurement steps, procedures and practices that improve quality of public engagement in procurement processes and, further, develop a framework for constituting, operationalizing and sustaining roles of Project Management Committees (PMCs) - a community constituted and empowered body to represent the public to engage directly with contractors, and simplifying preparation and interpretation of Bills of Quantities (BQs).
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
This commitment is relevant to access to information, civic participation, transparency and accountability because it will provide citizens, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and contractors with an opportunity to access and comment on procurement decisions online from the county website, an opportunity which was not previously open; and providing mechanisms for public accountability in public contracting through direct citizen online commentary and engagement by PMCs. Disclosure on projects implementation savings is relevant to the accountability value because it provides a platform for the citizens to participate in the re-allocation and re-prioritization of projects, based on their needs.
Additional information
Since the start of devolution in Kenya in 2013 which created counties, the county government of Elgeyo Marakwet has had an average annual projects completion rate of 60% i.e. projects completed within the contract agreement timelines and several reported cases of poorly done projects even after completion of the said projects - a problem that is largely attributable to loopholes in procurement such as weak due diligence (verification of supporting documents to submitted bids) process at tender evaluation. In addition, whereas the provisions of the national government Access to Government Procurement Opportunities, AGPO policy that reserves 30% of all government procurement tenders for special interest groups is a laudable economic empowerment opportunity, the targeted members of the various special interest groups have been limited by barriers relating to financial, expertise and certification requirements in assessing these opportunities, leaving room for opportunistic contractors to exploit these capacity gaps through proxy entities to acquire reserved contract opportunities.
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Develop and disseminate a simplified procurement manual showing steps, procedures, timelines, tasks and responsibilities for public procurement and, public complaints and redress mechanisms resulting from the 14-day window for public commentary provided under milestone activity 3 below.
Staff time, conference costs, stationery and display boards and ICT platforms
Sep 2018 - Mar 2019
Revise and disseminate the existing standard tender evaluation criteria requirements to provide for more criteria geared towards strengthening due diligence by providing basis for the assessment and, guarantee the usage and admission of only genuine relevant certificates by the bidding companies especially for the 30% reserved procurement opportunities for the special interest groups whenever there are procurement opportunities.
Staff time, conference costs, stationery, display boards and ICT platforms
Sep 2018 Jan 2019
Publish tender outcomes and display to the public for 14 days, giving adequate reasons and justifications for choices made, including tender evaluation results with focus on disclosure on the details of both the successful and unsuccessful bidders, the contract sum, the entire unfilled BQ for access by PMCs and public and further implement President’s executive order on beneficial ownership, with particular interest in specifying ownership in terms of demographics.
Stationery and display boards and ICT platforms
Nov 2018 Continuous
Develop a Procurement Opportunities Policy which will provide guidelines on access to and utilization of the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) opportunities provided for special interest groups (30%) and local entrepreneurs’ opportunities (20%). The policy will also provide a basis for publishing check-list for tender bid submission requirements which will assist in curbing misuse of the terms youth, women and PWDs in determining contract decisions in a bid to reduce exploitation of youth, women and PWDs demographics by unscrupulous contractors. Wide and participatory consultations will be adopted in developing the policy to capture the aspirations and desires of the target groups.
Staff time, consultancy, conference costs, stationery and ICT platforms
Sep 2018 Apr 2019
Simplify and disseminate technical documents including Bills of Quantities (BQs) and Assessment and reporting templates for Projects Management Committees (PMCs), government projects managers, contractors and members of the public
Staff time, consultancy, conference costs, stationery and display boards and ICT platforms
Ongoing- Sept 2019
Develop a Projects Management Policy to create mechanisms for institutionalizing Projects Management Committees (PMCs). The mechanism will also provide for the capacity building guidelines for the PMCs, establish safeguards for adherence to project implementation timelines, standards and quality, sustainability measures and, to facilitate establishment of a projects management fund to support projects assessments, monitoring and evaluation activities.
Staff time, consultancy, conference costs, stationery and display boards and ICT platforms
Oct 2018 - Mar 2019
Develop a standard operating procedure manual which provides for responsibilities of each docket in the procurement and projects management chain to fast-track projects implementation assessments, certification and payment processes. These dockets include; procurement, projects management, Finance and other Departments that the respective projects fall under
Staff time, conference costs, stationery and display boards and ICT platforms
Oct 2018 - Jan 2019
Mainstream standard operating procedure manual, timelines and indicators into the respective county staff performance measurement and appraisal targets
Staff time, performance appraisal forms
Sept 2018 - July 2019
Complete the county project implementation monitoring and evaluation system, http://www.EMCmiradiyetu.com, which is a webbased projects implementation system designed from the county government’s Action Plan I, to facilitate the escalation of public comments on project implementation progress. In addition, develop a projects’ mapping mobile application which draws data and information from the system. The system is at the final stage of completion as of the time of the co-creation process for Action Plan II.
Consulting and conference costs
Ongoing - Jan 2019
Regularly publish projects implementation and project assessment reports using the county website, projects management system and public notice board at Government offices and public places.
Staff time
Nov 2018 Continuous
Incorporate guidelines on Net-savings management into the Project Management Policy to be developed under Milestone Activity 6 of this OGP LAP II
Staff time Sep 2018 Mar 2019
Contact information
Name of responsible person from implementing agency
Mr. Robert Chelagat
Title, Department Director Procurement, Department of Finance and Economic Planning. Email and Phone robertchelagat@yahoo.com +254720259227
Other Actors Involved
Department of Economic Planning and Budgeting, Director of Public Works, Directorate of Communication, Directorate of ICT and Directorate of County Administration
Elgeyo Marakawet County Civil Society (EMC CSO) Network, Iten Business Community, Chambers of Commerce and CIOG Kenya.