Senior Kebs staff criticise pre-export inspection changes

A recent decision by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) to widen the pool of pre-export inspectors for goods and motor vehicles coming into the country has raised questions.

INSPECTION

On December 3 last year, the standards body advertised plans to enlarge the international tender for the provision of Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) of standards services for general goods, and for used motor vehicles, mobile equipment and spare parts.

The deadline for submitting bids was Tuesday, December 24, 2019.

Started in 2005, PVoC is an inspection regime in which Kebs, through inspection agents, carries out quality inspection of certain goods destined for Kenya in the countries of origin. The inspection agents are appointed by Kebs through competitive tendering. 

Goods found to meet the requirements of relevant Kenya standards are issued with certificates of conformity (CoC) by the agents.

REVENUE LOSS

In 2017, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) requested Kebs to allow them to use the CoC data as one of the reference documents in customs valuation. This was as a result of the alleged undervaluation by importers that had led to loss of revenue.

To address the expansion of the PVoC scope, Kebs advertised the tender last month to bring on board more inspection agents.

“The decision to increase the number of players was informed by recent enrichment of the PVoC programme requiring that goods, including those regulated by all government agents, should undergo PVOC certification,” said Kebs Managing Director Bernard Njiraini Saturday. 

However, some staff at the standards body have questioned the way the agency is going about the fresh tendering process.

RISK LAWSUITS

For example, the organisation announced the tender though contracts for these services are still running, which could expose Kebs to lawsuits.

The current tenders, awarded in 2017, have only a year to run, and some senior staff in the organisation are wondering why the management could not wait until then to advertise the fresh tender.

“This is a race of 10,000 kilometres, of which only 2,000 kilometres are remaining for it to end,” said a senior official who did not wish to be named as he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the organisation. “But since Kebs has introduced new athletes along the way, they should be subjected to the same treatment.”

However, Mr Njiraini defended the move, saying it was prudent to tender for more inspection agents now rather than later. 

“We do not consider it reasonable to wait until next year to put in place requisite measurers to address challenges being faced by the business community,” he said. 

COMPETENCE

Moreover, Kebs appears to have lowered the technical requirements for the new bidders, which could prejudice or undermine the current PVoC service providers, a charge that the MD also disputed.

“The technical requirements for demonstrating competence in quality inspection have not been reduced in any way,” he said. 

He added that top management at Kebs made the decision to expand the PVoC programme after a performance review of the service providers.

“Kebs has a mechanism of monitoring the performance of the programme, which includes internal performance reports for PVoC service providers, engagement with the agents and feedback from our stakeholders. It is as a result of these that the decision was made,” he said.

TOP CONTENDERS

In the newly advertised tender, zoning has been removed for general goods and replaced with countries, while for used motor vehicles, subcontracting has been allowed in all countries. This is despite a 2015 audit report by the Auditor-General that recommended that to ensure a contracted company has a long-term commitment to inspection of used motor vehicles and to keep off speculative bidders, Kebs should set a minimum requirement for full ownership of inspection facilities by inspection companies based on the number of vehicles coming from each country.

Further, the Auditor-General recommended that to better manage motor vehicle inspection, bidders should fully own at least 15 centres in Japan, three in the United Kingdom and one in the United Arab Emirates. In addition, the centres ought to be distributed in major ports and towns in the three countries where most of the vehicles in Kenya are imported from.

“The consequence of this is that some companies that failed in the current contract are among the top contenders after Kebs lowered this requirement,” said a senior source at the parastatal.

Though the two tenders (2017-2020 and 2019-2021) are in essence supposed to be used to do the same work, they technically differ in specifications.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

“Therefore, there is the risk of engaging unqualified inspection agents to work alongside qualified ones who have been subjected to more rigorous evaluation criteria,” said our source.

The new tender allows the bidders to subcontract the services in all regions, even in Japan. Currently, subcontracting is only allowed in Thailand and South Africa. In the current contract, the technical pass mark was 70 points but this has been lowered to 65 points in the new tender. 

Mr Njiraini said his was done to attract more service providers to cover the whole world, thus making it easier and faster for importers to access PVoC services and hence enhancing business. 

For the tender for inspection of general goods and services, the conditions of subcontracting have been relaxed, especially on the laboratories and the services to be performed.

Kebs appears to have breached the provisions of Article 227(1) of the Constitution on procurement of public goods and services that require the procuring entity to be fair, equitable, transparent and competitive when contracting for goods and services.

DELIBERATED ENOUGH

Our source further argued that there is no rule, principle or procurement method in the 2015 Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act that has been prescribed to conduct an “enlargement” of a tender or contract.

“What is close to an ‘enlargement’ of a tender in accordance with the Act is variation of contracts, but such variations must be within the limits and conditions as prescribed in the Act. Therefore this kind of procurement transaction is not in compliance with the Act,” said our source.

However in his statement to the Sunday Nation, Mr Njiraini said: “The new tender was adequately deliberated on by the National Standards Council, management and internal legal team, to facilitate and enhance trade particularly after enlargement of Kebs mandate in inspection of all imports into the country,” he said. 

REORGANISED MANAGEMENT

Meanwhile, the MD has reorganised his management team. The changes, which took effect on December 3, 2019, affected 14 senior staff members. 

Some of them include Dr Geoffrey Muriira, head of the testing department, who was named the North Rift regional manager. Dr John Ng’eno was moved as head of the procurement department to head of the planning and strategy department, while Ms Jackline Kang’iri now heads the testing department. 

Mr Rono Birgen is now the head of administration while Mr Zacharia Lukorito now heads the standards development department.

Mr Andrew Maiyo, who was head of planning and strategy was named the regional manager Lake Region while Mr Joseph Kamochu was moved from head of the department of administration, and now heads the department of research and development.

SWAPPED POSTS

Mr Gordon Onjore, previously the regional manager Mt Kenya region, now heads the department of market surveillance engineering.

Mr Samasom Ombok, who was previously the head of standards development department is now the head of the certification body department.

Ms Caroline Outa, who was head of department of certification is now in charge of the Mt Kenya Region. Mr Cyrus Wambari, previously, the South Rift region manager, swapped posts with Mr Mr Charles Musee who was in charge of the Coast region.

NEW REGION

Mr Vincent Cheruiyot who was previously in charge of North Rift region, is now in charge of the newly created North Eastern region.