NAIROBI: A German company has lost its bid to participate in a cash-rich pipeline construction tender after the court ruled there was no contract between it and the main contractor. High Court judge Fred Ochieng dismissed the case filed by Ruhrpumpen Global Limited on grounds that the company had not signed any deal to supply pumps with Zakhem Limited.
The pumps were required in the old Mombasa-Nairobi pipeline replacement project. They were to be provided through a sub-contract, with Zakhem providing the sub-contractor for approval. “There could be no contract between the two companies (Ruhrpumpen and Zakhem) that was independent of Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC),” Justice Ochieng ruled, adding that Ruhpumpen Global could not claim that it was the only company left to bid for the lucrative deal.
The judge said the final resolve on whether to award the contract or not depended on KPC and not Zakhem Ltd, the main contractor. “Zakhem had recommended Ruhpumpen but the offer was disapproved. It appears to me that the final decision lay with the client, who is the user of the pipeline, and not the contractor who was to replace the old pipeline,” Ochieng said. Ruhpumpen was the only company remaining on the deal to supply pumps to Zakhem as a sub-contractor.
However, the tables turned after KPC disapproved the tender on the basis that the Mexican company was not in its list of manufacturers as was required in the tendering rules. “The company has remained as the sole bidder but that was not a guarantee that it had won the tender.
It acknowledged that it was not on the KPC list of manufacturers and thus the onus would be left with the client (KPC) to approve if indeed it was on the said list,” the judge ruled. KPC’s legal officer, Gloria Khafafa, had testified that the number of initial companies that tendered for the deal was six, but Ruhrpumpen, the applicant in the case, was never on the list. Zakhem Ltd, a Lebanese-owned family company, won the tender to be the project’s main contractor.
It was also agreed by both the company and KPC that they would bring a list of manufacturers to supply submerged pumps, booster and main line pumps, where the best contender would be given the sub-contract. LOWEST BID According to court documents filed by Ruhrpumpen, the company claimed that it placed the lowest bid compared to the other competitors for the KPC project.
