Move more quickly on fast trains
By KWENDO OPANGA
Posted Saturday, October 30 2010 at 19:26
Daily Nation
In Summary
* We cannot use the same processes for buying paper and pencil to procure massive and unique products
Last week China launched a bullet train to serve the cities of Hongqiao and Hangzhou that are some 202 kilometres (126 miles) apart.
It was the latest addition to the world’s fastest growing high speed transit system among whose trains the CRH380, for example, can cover the 202 kilometres in just 45 minutes.
I was reminded that the Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) is supposed to build a high speed railway line from Mombasa to Malaba on the border with Uganda.
Of course, we are nowhere near reaching the dizzying speeds of the Chinese or having a railway network to carry those trains. But we must get there if we are to achieve the ideals of Vision 2030 and become a Middle Income Country (MIC).
The Mombasa-Malaba line is a first step on this long journey. But work on this mega project which should have began a year ago is yet to start because the initial stage is stuck in procurement wrangling.
It is a mega project because this is to be a high capacity standard gauge line capable of operating at speeds of 180 kilometres per hour for passenger trains and 120 kilometres per hour for freight trains.
What’s more, this line is supposed to be designed for electrification standards with axle loads of up to 35 tonnes. How does the current railway system compare? Its average operating speed is 30 kilometres per hour and its maximum axle load is 16 tonnes.
The proposed railway line will therefore revolutionise transport and logistics in Kenya and the region, decongesting as it will our roads and the port of Mombasa in the process.
The port handles more than 16 million metric tonnes of cargo per year, but the railway can only carry 4 per cent of it. By 2030, when Kenya should join the MICs, the port is expected to handle 30 million metric tonnes of cargo.
If the railway line will not be ready, then Kenya will lose business to those ports whose cargo will be cleared swiftly.
If it is not ready, then the cost of doing business in Kenya will be too high for the comfort of traders. They will vote with their feet and Vision 2030 will be in jeopardy.
That is why it is worrying that the Mombasa Malaba railway which should have been on track more than a year ago has not gone beyond the process of procuring consultants to design the line.
Initially the tender was terminated because the lowest bid was higher than the budget. The second time round, an aggrieved bidder appealed against the process to the Public Procurement Review Board.
The bidder took issue with the fact that the technical scores were not read out at the financial opening stage.
The Board annulled the tender principally because the bidder persuaded it that the technical scores could have been tampered with.
KRC counters that this could not possibly have happened because there were external observers, including representatives of the Institute of Engineers of Kenya, at the opening.
It appears to me the Board annulled the tender on a technicality which is to say that basically substance was ignored and a technicality whose objectives were met anyway stopped the process.
This begs the question, are our current procurement procedures robust enough to handle the intricacies of complex and large projects? Are we using the same processes used for buying paper and pencils to procure massive and unique products or services?
Though procurement procedures have been streamlined to make them less prone to corruption, I have some suggestions to get us out of this KRC-style quagmire.
Firstly, we should review the rules and procedures to ensure they are more pragmatic in their approach to decision making so that substance rather than technicality prevails when there are disputes.
Secondly, we need to consider moving away from processes that take months to determine to steps that take days and weeks, especially where it is clear speed is of the essence.
Thirdly, requirements that would cause bidders to think long and hard before they run to the review board or courts to lodge disputes should be introduced.
A non-refundable filing fee that is a percentage of the contract value could be levied before cases are filed.
These disputes are costing Kenyans valuable time and money and therefore there must be a way of discouraging bidders from filing petitions anchored in technicality rather than substance.
Lastly, if corrupt practices are detected in procurement processes, they should be referred to the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission and dealt with as such.
Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant
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