– The move has full Cabinet backing and is said to relate to investigations into improprieties in the selection of a Second National Operator.
– Unfortunately, no evidence has yet been produced as to what these improprieties are and unless legal action follows, DG Sammy Kirui will have in effect been judged guilty without any formal evidence being presented.
– The losing bidders for the SNO licence included a group of wealthy diaspora Kenyans based in the USA.
Industry in Disarray
– The CCK Board plays such a crucial role that now no further licenses can be issued, no disputes can be settled and no formal regulatory interventions can take place and there is no clear communication from the Government as to how affairs within the sector are to be managed”.
– If you were of a paranoid turn of mind, you might think that this is just what the Government might want. It means that there is no-one who can order Telkom Kenya to behave in a competitive fashion. The near-bankrupt Telkom Kenya can stagger forward without significant competition. And illegal call diversion within Telkom Kenya may or may not be continuing but there is no way of telling because any investigation has now been halted.
I actually think that’s the strategy behind Tuju’s actions. Telkom had already gone back to its old ways be blocking calls by people using Sema cards (cheaper Voip-based cards offered by competitor). The government is also making a killing of mobile phone calls…one of the reasons calls are so expensive (at least according to the Celtel boss) is that calls have to be routed through Telkom and companies are being charged artificial rates. The new structure would have changed all that. Incidentally, I think the person who wrote the piece defending Tuju is allied with the SNO group that has beef with CCK.
The person who supported Tuju is the KTIG boss – who lost to Econet in the mobile license race.
I knew there just had to be a vested interest for someone to defend Tuju.
The country is at war against corruption, it is indeed incomprehensible that two multi million dollars tenders were bungled by CCK, CCK was consequently found guilty of tampering with a government tender by PPCRAB in the matter of the SNO, yet some are keen to turn around and claim that they can’t see or hear any evil and that anyone supporting the Minister’s decision has something to gain, similarly those attacking the Minister’s decision have failed to grasp facts of the matter, have not bothered to study the relevant laws empowering the Minister to act and are indeed supporters of one of the worst bastions of corruption in the country…it is no wonder that Kenyans are their own enemies when it comes to fighting corruption..
I’d be interested to see what the PPCRAB report is, whatever that means. And the Minister, has kept all reaons to himself, for canceling the tender and dismissing the board.
And above all, I’d like to see real competition in the telecommunications sector that will lower the cost for users and expand networks to reach more Kenyans.
The PPCRAB report is possibly available from the Ministry of Finance.
“The Public Procurement Complaints, Review and Appeals Board is an administrative
instrument, created by a Legal Notice No. 51 of 30th March, 2001 (Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 24) and (Legislative Supplement No. 16) to deal with complaints
submitted by candidates arising from the processing of tenders in the Public Sector.”
http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/01112004/Regional/Regional37.html
“The government, through CCK, has gone back to the drawing board over the SNO tender after it was stopped in August by the Public Procurement Complaints Review and Appeals Board chaired by Richard Mwongo in response to an appeal by
Taifacom Ltd over CCK’s omissions in the tender process.
“Taking into account the critical failure in evaluation by CCK and also the interference in the tender process and disclosure of information by CCK, we find that the procurement process has been seriously flawed and compromised,” the board concluded.
It ordered that, in the public interest, the tender process be terminated, the procurement retendered and financial evaluations and bonds be returned to the bidders”
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/downloads/BusinessSunday1209.pdf
The SNO tendering controversy went before a tribunal which determined last week that the process was flawed as one of the bidders had been allowed to change some aspects of their bid after the closure of submissions
Real competition involves allowing credible players into the sector, not wannabe’s who have failed everywhere else they have tried to set up a network except in their own home country from which they are exiled for breaking various laws and who happen to only have $6800 in their bank account in New Zealand where they attempted to lie to Kenyans that they had established a thriving network yet it is easily verifiable through the public domain and through their own annual reports that the network is non existent. It is inconceivable that after throwing out all local Kenyan partners including 3 million Kenyans (whom they supplied with a phony BP to ensure that no financier would finance them on that basis) that there are some “Kenyans” who can afford to chant at the top of their voices in praises of these aliens.