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Citizen Weekly

Sunday 19 April 2015

Bungoma clerk double awards one tender to two companies

A section of Bungoma county assembly MCAs led by leader of majority Majimbo Okumu have demanded that the assembly clerk John Mosongo should step aside following allegations of impropriety in the award of tenders in the county.
The MCAs allege that the clerk has integrity issues hanging over his shoulders from Kitale, Bomet, Webuye and now Bungoma, of land grabbing when he was clerk at the defunct municipal councils.
On the other hand, Bungoma county assembly procurement board is poised for a bruising tender row with fears taxpayers coulld lose millions of shillings in a controversial tender award that has raised eyebrows.
The row between a bidder for the ongoing installation of an assembly Hansard has since moved to the tender board in what he terms as outright corruption in the board.

Valley Point Telecoms, a Nairobi based telecommunication company has moved to the procurement board to complain over a tender they say was snatched from them after being awarded only to find a new company on site a moment later.
Documents reveal double communication from the procurement office chaired by Mosonko to the company, hence raising questions over the procedure and manner that led to the award of the tender.
The letter further states that the tender was awarded to VTL pursuant to the tender committee meeting held on September 6 2013.
Valley Point Telecoms later on in an acceptance letter to the general manager Michael Ogutu dated  September 8 2013 replied to the award letter awaiting to start work.
“We waited for communication to commence the job as per the letter from the board in futility. Efforts to reach the office hit a dead end only for us to learn later that another company was on site,’’ said the director Kelly Walubengo.
The clerk awarded Sahhary Company the tender. Mosonko denied access of the tender award for the company that is running the project.
“I am not allowed to offer such documents to the public unless through other procedures if invoked,’’ said Mosongo.
The company director however revealed that after pursuing the clerk for the tender, he verbally promised to give him Sh27 million LPO to supply computers to the assembly in replacement for the botched tender.
This is not the first time the clerk has come under scrutiny. On September 4 2013, Mosongo escaped dismissal by the public service board.
The assembly’s public service board said Mosongo was incompetent and unsuitable to hold the office.
The letter said he is incompetent and unsuitable to deliver the duties as a clerk in the assembly.
The letter further said Mosongo flouted procurement rules by awarding tenders to unsuitable companies.
Mosongo had been seconded to the assembly by the Transitional Authority after previously working in the local government where he was faced with corruption allegations and mismanagement.
Initially, while serving as Kitale town clerk, Mosongo appeared before Kenya Anti Corruption Commission in November 2010 after it was confirmed that a six-acre plot within the Kitale municipality belonging to the public had been allocated to a private developer.
The grabbed land was meant for Kibomet Primary School. The clerk is also accused of using his position to elope with people’s wives citing the recent case whereby an NGO man in Busia recorded a statement with police of the clerk’s misdemeanor.

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