MINISTRY OF

LIVESTOCK AND
FISHERIES
DEVELOPMENT

Memo
To: All Directors
All Heads of Departments/Divisions

From: Senior Director of Administration

Date: 24th April, 2007
Ref: MLFD/SB/4/14 VOL.II/22

RE: ROLE OF USER DEPARTMENTS IN THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS

The Minister for Finance vide legal notice No. 171 gave the Public
Procurement & Disposal Act 2005 commencement date of 1st
January, 2007.The Public Procurement & Disposal Regulations 2006
also came into operation on the same date.

For the purpose of clarity of roles, the Public Procurement & Disposal
Regulations 2006 have clearly defined the roles and responsibilities
of the various officers involved in the procurement process. As user
departments, you are particularly reminded to carry out your duties
and responsibilities under the Public Procurement & Disposal
Regulations 2006 by undertaking the following functions among
others:

1) Initiating procurement and disposal requirements and forward them to

the procurement unit. It is a breach of official procedure to disclose
Government information to persons who are not supposed to know in
their official position. In this regard you are further advised that all
procurement values above Ksh 500,000/= shall be submitted to the
Ministerial Tender Committee while those below the Tender
Committee threshold shall be submitted to the Ministerial
Procurement Committee for adjudication and award. The requisitions
must therefore be submitted to the procurement unit in good time to
enable the relevant committees adjudicate and make the awards.

2) A confirmation that funds are available to meet the resultant

contractual obligation must accompany the requisitions. The MTC has

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 recommended that the user departments shall recommend capable
bidders and the procurement unit will add up the rest so as to avoid
collusion. The process shall remain rotational to enhance fairness. All
procurement shall be within the approved budget and procurement
plans. As user departments, you are advised not to commence any
procurement procedure until you are satisfied that sufficient funds
have been set aside in your budget. Under the Act , with respect to
overdue amounts owed under a contract for a procurement, interest
shall be paid in accordance with the prevailing commercial bank rates

3) Opening and evaluation of tenders, proposals and quotations shall be

undertaken jointly by the procurement unit and the officers appointed
by the Accounting Officer. In this regard, you are advised to nominate
Representative(s) to attend the opening of the quotations, tenders
and any other bids. You are further reminded that all submissions to
the Ministerial Tender Committee and Ministerial Procurement
Committee for adjudication should indicate the user’s
recommendations taking into account the professional or technical or
commercial ratings of the offers. Where lowest offers are not
recommended, convincing reasons must be given for rejecting each
lower offer. You are further reminded to submit names of officers who
will be appointed to the Inspection and Acceptance committee as well
as the Disposal committee.

4) Both the procurement unit and the user departments are called upon
to exhibit professionalism, integrity and honesty in procurement
proceedings.

5) All applications to both the Ministerial tender and

procurement committees should have the following:
(i) Must be addressed to the Chairman MTC/MPC and
submitted to the Head of Procurement unit
(ii) Original tenders/quotations and/or proposals.
(iii) A confirmation that funds are available to meet the
resultant cost of items and indicate the current balance
in the votebook
(iv) If there is a delay in submission there must be an
explanation for the same.
(v) Any other information/remarks relevant to the
procurement

It is particularly important that you familiarize yourselves with the

Act and Regulations and at all times adhere strictly to the provisions
therein in carrying out your roles and duties.

The Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005 protects officers from
coercion by senior officers. Equally it stipulates very harsh penalties
on acts of corruption, fraudulent and collusive practices.

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You may wish to note that a person who contravenes provisions of
the Act and the regulations is liable to a penalty of a fine not
exceeding four million shilling or to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding ten years or to both. If the person is a body corporate, to
a fine not exceeding ten million shillings.

J. M. Nandasaba
FOR: PERMANENT SECRETARY