By Our Reporters
Following our recent story showing some bidders raising a red flag disputing the manner in which the bidding process for the purchase of 2,000 off road motorcycles the President wants to deliver for lower local government leaders, the Local Government Ministry officials have gotten back to us shedding light on a number of things. Meant to facilitate supervision of service delivery programs by LC3 Chairpersons and Town Council Mayors, the entire procurement is estimated to cost GoU between Shs25bn and Shs30bn.
Responding to concerns that the 15 days bidding period was too short, Undersecretary James Kintu tells Mulengera news that the procurement had to be expedited to prevent the money (realized through supplementary budget) from being returned to the Consolidated Fund as unspent funds at the end of the FY2018/2019. In fact, MLOG Senior Procurement Officer Mike Duncan Tumwikirize says since this is an emergency procurement, single sourcing would actually have been the most suitable procurement method but to give chance to many potential service providers, they opted for open bidding but with reduced number of days.
Tumwikirize also tells why it’s possible for the bidding process to be concluded in such a short time without any rules of prudent practice being breached. Specifically referring to Shs250m that was asked for bid security, Tumwikirize says securing the same from a bank should be extremely easy for any bidder that is running credible business. Referring to the example of Toyota Uganda (holder of Yamaha territorial agency), Tumwikirize said it’s very possible to get one’s bank to issue you with a Shs250m bid security within one day. He said it’s equally possible for the Ministry, through the PS, to write to the bank seeking verification regarding the authenticity of the bid security.
Some of the bidders, in their petition to the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, had complained that Shs250m asked for bid security is too high especially that a firm (successful or not) will have to forfeit that money for a period of 6 months. But Tumwikirize says the MLOG was very considerate in asking for just 1% of the anticipated contract value because employer or client (the procuring entity) is permitted to ask up to 2% which would have pushed bid security to Shs500m. “If you can’t get money for bid security, where then will you get the money from for the contract?” reflectively wonders Tumwikirize.
Swizin Mugyema, the Commissioner heading the user department for the 2,000 motorcycles, says hard lessons were learnt from the 70,000 bicycles scandal (of 2012) meant for LC1 Chairpersons and the MLOG officials are now wiser and can’t tolerate intimidation or blackmail (by aggrieved bidders) that can lead them to making the same mistakes.
Due diligence has to be adequately done to ensure past mistakes are avoided including awarding the contract to a two week old company like was the case in the LC1 bicycles scandal. The MLOG officials also wondered why any aggrieved bidder would run to the Speaker before exhausting the PPDA Act-well stipulated other administrative avenues through which a remedy can be sought. These include petitioning the procuring entity’s accounting officer (in this case Ben Kumumanya) or even PPDA ED for administrative review.
Tumwikirize also responded to claims that the deal must be awarded to a local company as required under BuBu and the local content policy of government (as opposed to the likes of Toyota or even Nissan or Honda). He clarified BuBu applies to locally manufactured products and not imported things. He insisted there is no one manufacturing motorcycles in Uganda. All that is currently done is importing consignments which are assembled here upon shipment. “In fact even talk that so and so will create jobs for local Ugandans and realize the objectives of BuBu once awarded the deal is neither here nor there because whoever wins that contract will have to assemble them here. It’s simply not possible to ship in 2,000 motorcycles when they are already assembled. Assembling has to be done here and its obviously more costly bringing in say Japanese to come and do the assembling. It will have to be Ugandans cashing in on those assembling jobs no matter who finally wins the contract,” says Tumwikirize.
Saying Shs30bn is too much money for the contract to be awarded casually without adequate due diligence being undertaken, the Senior Procurement Officer added: “This is taxpayers’ money and has to be spent on a dependable product that has been tested and it would be irresponsible on our part as a Ministry to go around experimenting to see if so and so can do a good job as opposed to going for the very best from the start. We shall do the right thing as guided by the law and won’t go experimenting in labs.”
Elsewhere, politically connected sources say the money was specially availed and no one will be permitted playing games on the President’s promise like this one which has so much political significance for his 2021 reelection. “We can’t go procuring things that will break up a month later and we find the entire government embroiled in scandals. That is out,” says a knowledgeable official.
Sources further reveal that the MLOG has the capacity to verify all contractors meaning there is no way ineligible bidders (previously PPDA-blacklisted or suspended as some aggrieved parties have alleged) can escape scrutiny and erroneously get awarded the tender. Speaking to different stakeholders even in ULGA, Mulengera news got the impression that given the political sensitivity of this procurement, the ideal thing to do would be going with well-established providers like Nissan or Toyota Uganda that have not only territorial agency for Suzuki and Yamaha brands but also have regional garages and mobile workshops to offer after sales services and ensure maintenance of the motorcycles. Sources close to the process say that each motorcycle is being budgeted to cost about Shs6m because these aren’t ordinary bikes for town roads but for upcountry complex road network for which only off the road machines are suitable and appropriate.
Tumwikirize also refuted claims that the Ministry had required proof that bidders must have supplied 500 motorcycles strictly to a local government in a previous contract. He said this had been distorted by frightened bidders just to discredit the entire process and blackmail the Ministry officials to bend the rules in their favor. He clarified that the procuring entity doesn’t have to be a government agency but anything including NGOs or even financial institutions.
Indeed entities like UNICEF and Pride Microfinance have previously purchased such large bulks of motorcycles for their outreach and loans officers. Proof of satisfactory delivery to any of these would suffice for the purposes of the 2,000 motorcycles the MLOG is trying to purchase for the monitoring of service delivery in lower local governments. The industry standard is 75% meaning the MLOG could have required previous supply of up to 1500 motorcycles as opposed to mere 500. “The logistical requirements to deliver 2,000 motorcycles isn’t manageable by everyone which is why it must be demonstrated one has previously done similar work of almost similar magnitude,” Tumwikirize explains.
Commissioner Mugyema explained that purchasing off the road motorcycles each at an estimated cost of Shs6m isn’t being extravagant because there are motorcycles that cost as much as Shs200m each-example being protocol ones procured by Police to provide lead motorcycle services for the VIPs’ motorcades. The 2,000 motorcycles are to be delivered at Namalere to save the contractor additional logistical expenses that would go into having to deliver them to the respective beneficiary local governments. The ultimate beneficiaries will each pick their motorcycle from there.
PPDA GUIDANCE
Mulengera news has also seen a two page letter from PPDA advising the MLOG to relax on the “restrictive” bidding requirements to ensure both national and resident service providers competitively participate and have the opportunity to cash in on the Shs30bn procurement. The procuring entity is also advised to lot the procurement into 4 parts of 500 motorcycles each to enable inadequately capacitated bidders to also stand a chance to pocket something off the deal. The PPDA letter indicates that the complainant is Simba Automobiles, a new Kamwokya-based firm that assembles UG Boss brand of motorcycles. But being largely advisory, the PPDA letter is something the procuring entity could overlook and carry on given the urgency with which the President and State House want the politically very important motorcycles delivered to appease the Sub County, Town Councils and Municipality elected chairpersons whose participation in service delivery monitoring the big man wants to strengthen. The idea is they deserve transport facilitation to increase their mobility just like the way government facilitates other elected leaders like MPs, Ministers, Mayors and LC5 Chairpersons. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
