Stop interfering with procurement

The President has intervened in the procurement process for the Kampala-Jinja Expressway and invited China Railway 17th Bureau Group Company (CR17) for fresh discussions after its failed initial bid even when the bidding process has already reached advanced stages.

On September 18, the President wrote to the Minister of Works, Ms Monica Azuba, that CR17 has the money required for the project and is ready to build the road. “Therefore, I invite that company to make their presentations and proposals,” the President wrote. The letter is akin to a recommendation for CR17. This is wrong.

The President’s interference offends the law, principles of fairness and public interest and exposes the country and government to risk. The intervention amounts to hijacking the procurement process.

Before the Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra) commenced the prequalification stage on September 3 last year, State House asked Ms Azuba to reconsider CR17’s interest in the project and she indeed invited the company to submit its proposal. The company did not. Instead, its two subsidiaries submitted the bids, which were later rejected at the prequalification stage for lack of technical competence.

Their documents failed to show that the subsidiaries had no capacity to raise third party commercial debt of $1b for their five projects they had submitted for the bidding, failed to show they had raised a third party debt on any previous project outside their home country China nor did they show five projects they had managed or operated under PPP arrangement.

Thereafter, CR17 went on a lobbying-spree in State House and Parliament. The President is seeking to invite the company back, which implies reversing the bidding process, which is already in advanced stages. This will affect the project schedule. The President should stop interfering in public procurements. Allow the laws and established governing agencies to manage the process.

This interference will erode investor confidence in the country’s Doing Business processes and render the respective technical government agencies powerless and irrelevant. The President’s intervention will create a bad impression that he can single-handedly determine investment contracts in the country through lobbyists.

It will also mean a contractor of government project does not need competence, but rather people who can secure access to the President for lobbying.

Mr President, you are setting a bad precedent which will undermine competitive bidding. Allowing CR17 bid back is as good as declaring the company as the winner and any other bidder participation will be a waste of time.