Members of the public have been invited to give suggestions towards a Bill that seeks to cushion contractors and suppliers from delayed payment for government tenders.
Thika Town legislator Patrick Wainaina who is sponsoring the motion which is set to go through the second reading in Parliament said the public have the opportunity to give their input on any amendment to enrich the Bill that is at the public participation stage.
The Public Procurement and Assets Disposal (Amendment) Bill, 2020 that has already gone through the first reading requires all national and county government tenders to be accompanied by bank guarantees, so that if the government fails to settle payments within 90 days, a contractor shall get their money from the bank, leaving the government to settle the financier.
This is set to be a relief to many contractors who end up being auctioned after going for months and even years without payment after completing their jobs.
“I am appealing to members of the public to give their input since once it goes through the second reading, there will be no room to do it, Wainaina said and added that he is concerned that a lot of people have been auctioned for doing business with the government.
“You find young people getting together to get government jobs and after completing their job they never get paid for months. Families are getting broken and a lot of people losing property and investment due to failure by the government to pay for their contracts,” Wainaina added.
The Bill also proposes that the prices for contracts should be within 15 per cent range of engineer’s estimate to prevent cases of over-quoting and under-quoting.
The MP noted that the bill, if enacted into law, would deter contractors or companies from quoting an unreasonably high figure for a contract whose cost is low, or those that quote unrealistic low amounts just to win a tender.
