LOOTING AT THE KENYA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Concerned Kenyan
We wish to report to Kenyan and the international community at large on the issue of grand corruption in Kenya’s Public Institutions. One such institution is the Kenya Police Department. The Kenya Police Department appears to have been compromised in awarding the following tender whose contract was signed Wednesday, 7th, February 2007 and covered in the Kenyan electronic media: TENDER NO. KPAW (6) 2006 – 2009 – OVERHAUL OF FOUR (4 NO.) Mi-17 HELICOPTERS, SYSTEMS, COMPONENTS, ENGINES AND COCKPIT/AVIONICS UPGRADE USING RESTRICTED TENDER.
Information available to us is that the tender was awarded to the highest bidder in total disregard of public procurement rules. The tender was awarded to Israel Aircraft Industries who do not deal with such aircrafts who quoted $12,820,753.00 while the lowest bidder who deals with the aircrafts in question quoted $8,813,760.00 this figure is $4,006,993.00 less. Globally, JSC SPARC is licensed to deal with the following types of aircrafts, Mi-8, Mi-17 and Ka-32.
The main partners of JSC SPARC involved in the company’s activities are Mil Helicopters Plant, JSC Kamov, Kazan Helicopters, Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant, Kumertau Aviation Enterprise, GosNIIGA, TSAGI named after N.E.Zhukovskiy, Krasny Oktaybr. Among the customers of JSC SPARC are GAZPROMAVIA, STC Russia, Federal Border Service of Russia, Yamal airlines.
To confirm that JSC SPARC is the company who deals with the Mi-17, which is Russian made helicopters we urge you to visit their website on http://www.sparcavia.com.
You may also visit the website I.A.I on http://www.iai.co.il to confirm that they do not deal with Mi-17 but they deal with CH-53, Bell-212 and Bell 206 helicopters.
This award is fraud of the highest order and is very risky in Kenyan airspace.
To give an analysis, the number of bidders who submitted their bids when the bids were opened on October 3, 2006 was as follows:
No. |
Bidder |
Country |
Amount |
Remarks |
1. |
UT Air |
South Africa |
$9,342, 628.00 |
No Bid Bond |
2. |
Lom braha Air |
Czech Republic |
$9,971,184.00 |
With Bid Bond |
3. |
Israel Aircraft Industries |
Israel |
$12,820,753.00 |
With Bid Bond |
4 |
JSC Saint Petersburg Aviation Repair Company (SPARC) |
Russia |
$8,813,760.00 |
With Bid Bond |
5 |
Randon Aviation Systems |
Israel |
$9,945,570.00 |
With Bid Bond |
Incidentally, the same tender had been cancelled last year, on July 10, 2006 citing irregularities and that the Government were saved from losing Shs110 million. Now, it is being awarded for over shs.920 million.
The Commissioner of Police on July 10, 2006 had indicated that the lowest bidder then, was not licensed to deal with the said aircrafts but information available to us indicated that all Kenya Police Officers flying Mi-17 including their Commandant were trained by JSC SPARC, through proxies, infact, two pilots had just returned from three months training from JSC SPARC at the time when the tender was cancelled through the media on July, 10, 2006. The Police Department has been sending their officers to Russia for training through a commercial company from Lithuania.
At that time also, the Police Commissioner indicated that he visited Israel Aircraft Industries who where qualified and had been repairing NATO planes, what we know is that Mi-17 helicopters is not part of NATO planes, NATO fleet comprises the Bell Helicopters and Supper Beamers and others but no Russian aircrafts is among them. Russia is not a member of NATO.
The same company who were awarded the contract wants to subcontract the work to JSC SPARC so that they can get the culprits a kill of almost $4 million of Kenyan taxpayers’ money. JSC SPARC has refused to accept such subcontract and have written to KACC to that effect. Nothing has been done by KACC so far. Right now, the work has not begun due to the fact that the Israeli company has not found any body to carry out the work on their behalf.
To disguise their dirty tricks, the Police Commissioner bought space in the nation newspapers on December 8, 2006 and analyzed how each of the tenderers faired in the evaluation purporting transparency.
The Department wrote a letter to JSC SPARC explaining to them that their bid was not successful and backdated the letter to November, 24 2006 so that by the time they will receive the letter the period of appeal will have elapsed and therefore will not be possible for them to appeal with the public procurement appeals board. This letter was not given to the local representatives of JSC SPARC but posted through post office to St Petersburg, Russia which reached in February 19, 2007.
This is an Anglo leasing type of contract and is meant to run for three years. We urge you to highlight such cases swiftly to let Kenyans and the whole world to know the truth of the matter.
I have hereby attached a scanned copy of the letter JSC SPARC sent to the Director KACC.
Concerned Kenyan