Swiss firm Sicpa SA has failed in its bid to quash some clauses in a Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) tender that were allegedly unfairly used to lock it out of a tender for the provision of standardisation mark stickers.
High Court judge Jairus Ngaah ruled that he was not satisfied that the decision by the Public Procurement Administrative Board (PPRB), dismissing its request for review, was tainted.
The PPARB dismissed Sicpa’s request for review on April 30.
The firm argued that Kebs introduced a criteria on eligibility, which it deemed offensive and discriminatory as it was fashioned to lock it out of the procurement process.
Sicpa argued that section III-Evaluation and Qualification Criteria, which stated that a “tenderer or of its associate must not have been convicted or paid any fines anywhere in the world, directly or indirectly for any irregularities regarding government contracts such as bribery or organisational deficiency”, was deliberately placed in the tender document with the sole intention of disqualifying it from the job to print special stickers.
But Justice Ngaah said there was nothing in the Board’s decision that suggests that it did not correctly understand the law that regulates its decision-making power and that it did not give effect to it.
“The respondent’s (PPRB) decision cannot also be said to be so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question to be decided could have arrived at it. Again, there is nothing to suggest that there was any procedural impropriety in the process of reaching the respondent’s decision,” the judge said.
Sicpa informed the court that Kebs invited bids for the provision of standardisation mark stickers on March 24, 2024.
However, the procuring entity deliberately manipulated and edited the tender document with the sole intention of disqualifying it from the tender.
According to the firm, the criteria inserted were unlawful and subjective.
