E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - Awori In Trouble As He Defends Sh2.7b Tender

Vice-President Moody Awori yesterday defended the controversial Sh2.7 billion passport equipment tender to both cheers and jeers from an agitated House.

The V-P told Parliament there was no impropriety involved in the project. Indeed, he said upon completion the scheme would earn the country Sh1.8 billion annually.

And at one time Awori was heckled by Members from both sides when he attempted to block them from questioning him when stood to address the matter of the passports.

The V-P got himself into a muddle when he appeared not to know under which Standing Order to rise or to deliberately seek to use an order under which he would escape scrutiny.

Awori had sought the permission of the Deputy Speaker, Mr David Musila, to make a personal statement under Standing order Number 69.

Under this Order he would not have been asked questions by Members about the alleged scam. However, when he rose to speak, it turned out that he was actually issuing a ministerial statement.

That forced Musila to rule him out of order on Standing Order Number 69 and allowed Members to quiz him.

The V-P was bombarded with points of order by Members from Kanu when he said when the project is concluded it would be earn the country Sh1.8 billion a year.

"In essence the total cost of the system will be recovered in three years," he added.

Embakasi MP David Mwenje said the matter of the passports equipment tender was already before his National Security Committee and that he had all the documents pertaining to the scam.

He further said the company which had won the tender did not even put in a bid for the project and sought to know how it was adjudged the winner.

Responding, the V-P said the matter was still under investigation. He added that the Public Accounts Committee of the House had also seized on the matter in order to get to bottom of it.

He, however, said the matter had nothing to do with security as no security had been breached. He argued that what was before the House was a matter of accountability and that was why the PAC was getting involved.

He said already PAC had asked for special accounts of the project from the Controller and Auditor General in order to carry out investigations.

On why the tender had been awarded through single sourcing, Awori, who had earlier said it had nothing to with security, said that was because it was a security issue.

Awori said the tender had been given to a company which had not competed for it to ensure that firms that had tendered would not infiltrate the project and compromise the security of the country.

Awori said this was procedure that it is followed world-wide and Kenya was no exception.

Earlier when the V-P started to read his statement ostensibly under Standing Order No 69, the Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition, Dr Bonaya Godana, stood on a point of order and interrupted him.

Godana said the House must have the capacity to respect its rules, adding that what the V-P was doing had nothing to do with a personal statement. He pointed out that Awori was responding to Ntonyiri MP Maoka Maore having exposed a scam.

He demanded that the V-P owns up as to the fact that the statement was one of policy in response to Maore and not a personal statement under the guise of standing order 69.

Awori then said the statement was a personal one but he would allow Members to seek clarification at the end of it.

Bomet MP Nick Salat (Kanu) again stood on another point of order after Awori persisted he was making a personal statement and sought the intervention of the chair.

Musila at this point asked Awori to go straight to the matter that affected him as per the standing order.

The V-P however said he needed to give a history of the matter in order to clear his name that he was not involved in any way in any wrong-doing.

As soon as Awori concluded the statement, Musila ruled that his was not a personal but ministerial statement and that he would allow Members to seek clarification.

Salat, on a point of order, sought to know why the supply of the new equipment was way beyond Sh180 million.

He also sought to know from the V-P why if the tender was a turn key project, a Mr Jimmy was being sent the world over to look for money.

Awori said Kenya was being isolated by other countries because of the "archaic" type of passports they had sought from the Treasury.

Ford People leader, Mr Simeon Nyachae, said there was a lot more the V-P had not covered in his statement and that it should not be wished away.

Nyachae said there was need to have the relevant departmental committee take over the matter in order to get to the bottom of it.

Awori said following the September 11, 2002 terrorist attack in America some of the glaring weak points detected was the passport issuing system which had been infiltrated by fraudsters and criminals who were foreign passports.

He said there was need to urgently modernise the immigration and border control systems, adding that the department was one of the obsolete and corrupt system when Narc took over power.

Awori said on October 1, 2001 the Immigration Department requested authority from the Office of the President for only a passport issuing system through restricted tendering for security reasons.

He said this was granted on February 5, 2002 adding that five firms were invited to tender for the supply but only three of them - De La Rue Identity Systems, AIT International PLC and Face Technologies - responded.

He said from analysis of the bids presented, only one firm was found to meet both the commercial and technical requirements. He added that its quotation of Sh622 million was however found to be far in excess of the budgetary allocation.

Awori said the tender could not therefore be awarded for lack of funds and was therefore cancelled and the tenderers informed on August 5, 2002.

Awori said another tender was floated to six firms using revised technical specifications which was to cover only passport issuing systems.

He further said by deadline of November 28, 2002 three of the firms - Face Technologies (SA) US$9,9 million, Get Group (USA) US$10.5 million and De La Rue US$12.3 million.

Defending the project, Awori said it will cover production of high new generation security passports, a new passport issuing system, high security new generation visas.

He said the project will also collect up to Sh3 billion annually as opposed to the current revenue collection of Sh1.2 to Sh1.5 billion and also enhance border control systems.