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Omtatah Threatens Action Against TSC Over Multi-Billion Health Insurance Tender
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LAST UPDATED: 2022/10/26 AT 5:26 PM
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PUBLISHED OCTOBER 26, 2022
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Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah is now accusing the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of attempting to influence the award of a multi-billion shillings health insurance tender.
Omtatah says TSC has placed impossible conditions on the advertised tender ostensibly to skew it towards Minet Insurance that has been giving the services to teachers since 2019.
The Senator claims that the conditions given can only be met by Minet insurance, conditions that are against the Public Procurement Act.
“I am concerned that, at the expense of the affected teachers and the public interest, some of the mandatory requirements outlined in the tender, are not just oppressive and unreasonable, they clearly demonstrate the tender is rigged,” said the Busia Senator.
The three-year tender from 2022-2025 is expected to rise to approximately Ksh. 50 billion from the current Ksh 35.2 billion following planned hiring of 116,000 teachers for the next two years.
Following the revelations Omtatah now wants TSC to cancel the tender, failure to which he will take further measures to ensure public funds are safeguarded.
“I shall make a formal complaint and demand an intervention by law enforcement and the relevant government agencies, including Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, Parliament and above a legal redress in the High Court of Kenya,” said Omtatah.
One of the mandatory requirements for the tender states that the lead consortium for the tender must provide tender security of Ksh.300 million which is higher than the statutory capital required at Ksh.250 million.
In the previous tender which was advertised in 2019, the tender security was capped at Ksh.180 million for insurance companies.
The Senator has also questioned Medical Insurance providers being required to have a gross premium (the money that is paid by any person or company/business for availing of an insurance policy) of Ksh. 5 billion in the year 2021, a condition that can only be met by Minet Insurance.
“Although a procuring entity has the right to set its own minimum standards for potential bidders, both the constitution and the Kenya’s public procurement laws doesn’t allow public officials to collude with potential bidders,” he said.
“Since the law protects the public from corporate capture, government institutions must provide an environment where the public can get value for money,” Omtatah added.
