Sh32.5million Sakaja’s Dishi na County program’s kitchen was irregularly procured
The process for the Contraction of the Central Kitchen for the Dishi Na County program by Nairobi City County was irregular, a 2023-2024 financial year audit report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has revealed.
Gathungu says the procurement records by the county indicate that a Sh32, 527,827 contract was awarded after two bidders submitted the tender, but after she reviewed the evaluator’s scores, none of the evaluators signed their score sheets.
She further revealed that both bidders were classified as responsive and evaluated based on the set technical criteria, which they both met.
The documents reviewed by the AOG indicate that the tender evaluation report stated that bidder No. 1 was non-responsive and eliminated at the preliminary stage, which contradicts the individual committee members’ scores.
For the construction of the Central Kitchen in Njiru, Gathungu revealed that evaluators did not sign their score sheets, raising doubts about the authenticity of the scores.
“The evaluation committee did not comply with the provisions of Regulation 30(a) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations, 2020, which stipulates that, when discharging the mandate provided for under the Act, committee should conduct the technical and financial evaluation of the tenders based strictly on the compliance and evaluation criteria set out in the tender documents,” Gathungu stated.
In the report, the AOG reveals further that during a physical verification by her team at Toi Primary’s Central kitchen in October last year, the walls had visible cracks despite the kitchen having been completed only a year earlier.
The kitchen also lacked an electricity meter, with no water connectivity installed by the contractor as the implementor connected the water at their own cost.
This is contrary to the bill of quantities as the contractor was expected to install three (3) water tanks, each with a capacity of 5,000 litres for cold water storage, at a total cost of Sh300,000.
She revealed that there was also poor workmanship of the pavements, and the installed gas pipe was not connected to the cooking vessels, rendering it unusable.
Gathungu further revealed that the contractor failed to install driveway and parking lights, which were valued at Sh500,000 as specified in the bill of quantities.
The revelations by the Auditor General come amidst queries she raised while giving her report on why the county has no Memorandum of Understanding with Food for Education over the provision of lunch for the ECDE kids in Public schools across the county.
She also questioned why the kids pay Sh5 per plate of the meal while in the signed contract they were to offer the same at Sh25 which is paid for by the county and a budget is set for the same at the City County Assembly.
