CC image courtesy of Lubuto Library Project on Flickr
Olive Telecommunications has gone to court to appeal against a ruling by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) to revoke the award of the tender for the supply of devices for Kenya’s laptops for schools programme.
HumanIPO reported last week the PPARB revoked the award of the tender to the Indian firm and excluding it from the process for not meeting tender requirements, ordering the Ministry of Education to start afresh with the exercise.
The Standard reports Olive has now hired lawyers Ahmednasir Abdulahi and Mohammed Nyaoga to challenge the decision in court, with the report saying the main issues were over the fact the decision was read by an interim chair and the claim the company does not have the finances to deliver the laptops.
“We are openly challenging the decision of the review board. How can efforts of a competent team that worked for three months be rubbished by a few people sitting for two days?” said Olive chairman Arun Khanna, who added the ruling had painted the company as “box movers”.
The controversy surrounding the procurement process of the laptops has led to calls for Kenyan cabinet secretary for education Jacob Kaimenyi to quit, though Kaimenyi has said he has no intention of doing so and instead warned members of the committee responsible they face the sack.
