The awarding of tenders to some of the highest high-priced bidders in the World Bank-sponsored Nairobi roads rehabilitation project has sparked controversy. Virtuous World Bank has become a villain. A number of contractors are disgusted with what see as "inflated" costing in the work funded jointly by the bank and the Kenya Government.

It is being alleged that apart from the costs being inflated, they also discriminate against indigenous contractors. The costing for the WB bbank's projects is a stark contrast to those undertaken through the Fuel Levy, critics allege.

El Nino Roads Project coordinating committee was expected to officially announce the winning bids by last Friday. At a news conference, sources say, the Project coordinator Elijah Mwengi, would reveal the sums being spent. But this did not happen.materialise.

As expected, he will reveal that in normal banking situation, the lender hardly interferes with the project for which funds are sought. The conception and implementation of the project are solely on the part of the borrower, in this case, the government.

Mwengi had been expected to explain the roles of the World Bank and the government, which are jointly funding the Sh1.5 billion project at 90 per cent and 10 per cent proportions respectively. It is the simple "banking" issue that has caused ripples in the construction industry. A number of contractors and consultants have accused the bank of abetting corruption in the tendering process.for the project.

The accusations are not new. Last June, reports indicated that the El Nino Roads Project Committee – comprising representatives from the bank and the Office of the President – planned to issue out tenders to the highest bidders. Now it has emerged that, indeed, the committee went ahead to award the tenders despite the protests by some of the stakeholders.

The World Bank responded to President Moi's appeal for emergency funds last year, following severe damage to Kenya's economic fabric by the1997/98 El Nino- induced floods. The bank extended Sh6 billion credit for the repair of roads, bridges and hospitals. About Sh2 billion was to go to roads alone.

The bank was involved in two projects. They are the El Nino and the Kenya Urban Transport Infrastructure Project (Kutip), under which roads in 26 urban centres will be fixed. (Nairobi's Langata and Jogoo roads are under Kutip financed by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of Local Government)

However, the twin projects have been riddled with accusations of fraud and nepotism, complaints which were raised even before the tenders were awarded. While the repair of a kilometre of road under the Fuel Levy-funded projects costs Sh10 million, the same costs Sh60 million under the World Bank/Kenya Government projects.

Incidentally, some of the winners of the bids have also been involved in projects elsewhere in the country, where complaints have been raised about the quality of their work.

China Road & Bridge Corporation (K), a multinational firm with a credit level estimated at $500 million (about Sh3.5 trillion), though having two projects in Nairobi, is also involved in the rehabilitation of the Nairobi/Mombasa highway.

However, the companies have sought to counter the fears by explaining that local contractors with the capacity to implement such jobs are lacking.

The controversy in the industry revolves around figures. Critics have focused on costs and are immersed in politics of comparison.

Examples abound. While the rehabilitation of the Kibera/Kilimani road costs Sh9.9 million a kilometre under a Fuel Levy-funded project, it costs Sh74.2 million a kilometre on Langata Road which is funded by the World Bank and the Kenya Government. The cost of rehabilitating a kilometre of the Industrial Area roads is Sh57.8 million, city centre roads Sh69.6 million, and Jogoo Road Sh28.4 million.

"This is ridiculous," argues a local contractor. "In normal circumstances, rehabilitating a road should not cost more than Sh10 million a kilometre. The costing in the World Bank-sponsored work reveals a high level of irregularity in the tendering process." The disgust over "high costing" in the industry come from far and wide.

About six months ago, President Moi raised the same question, asking why a kilometre of road repair work should cost in excess of Sh10 million. The answer, explanation, he felt, was rooted in corruption.

Experts say Kenya's construction industry is the most expensive in Africa, and probably by extension, worldwide. They say that while a kilometre of road costs on average Sh15 million in Kenya, it takes the equivalent of Sh6 million in neighbouring Uganda and Sh5 million in Tanzania.

A couple of months ago, Paul Karekezi, the managing director of Gibb Africa, one of continent's leading engineering consultancy firms, said in an interview with the Sunday Nation: "I believe the rates we have in the country are very high. They should be lower."

The tendering in the World Bank/Kenya Government projects would hardly have raised eyebrows had the process not been subjected to the kind of costing done in the fuel levy-funded works, whose contract costs range from Sh5.9 million to Sh13.7 million for a kilometre.

The Fuel Levy-funded rehabilitation and repair of the 52-kilometre Karen/Langata road will cost Sh8 million a kilometre, Pumwani road Sh13.1 million, Makadara/Kasarani roads Sh5.9 million, Kibera/Kilimani road Sh9.9 million and Westlands/Parklands road Sh7.6 million a kilometre. These are paid for with the fuel levy funds.

In their defence, the World Bank-Kenya Government project officials say their accusers ignore the technical details involved in each of the specific roads.

"You need to get your facts right," said Mr Josephat Sasia, the World Bank officer in charge of the El Nino project, said last week. "I do not agree with the allegations (that our projects are inflated). There are criteria which have to be used. The other thing is that some of the contractors who quote low bids have no capacity to implement the projects they tender for."

Engineer Mwengi, the coordinator of the project, said the tendering process was foolproof. "Critics are ignorant of the technical aspects of construction. works, he argues and provided reasons for the disparity in costing. "You have to look at issues such as details of pavement, width of carriageway, drainage and lighting services, and the current state of the road being worked on."

According to Engineer Mwengi, reconstruction work cannot cost the same as recarpetting. "Works that involve many diversions, construction of bridges and roundabouts are costly; straight and simple roads are comparatively cheaper."

However, there is an interesting side to the whole saga. The El Nino project committee has a pre-conceived idea that bidders who quote low prices hardly have the capacity to effectively do the job. "If someone wanted to sell you a shirt for Sh2, would you go for it? Would you not be suspicious?" asked a Bank source.

Critics have focused on two roads with the same kind of works – Langata and Jogoo. Both ribbons involve the construction of dual carriageways, but the costings are very different: Sh74.2 million a kilometre for Langata Road and Sh28.4 million for Jogoo Road.

The authorities did not wish to explain the disparities in the costing of these two stretches, and instead asked the Sunday Nation to raise the question at a news conference to be convened later by the El Nino and Kutip coordinating teams.

The Complaints against the World Bank have a history. Tendering for a number of key roads was contentious right from the time the bids were advertised. The tender for the rehabilitation of city centre roads went to the fourth highest bidder, China Road & Bridge Construction. The firm quoted Sh487 million against Sh281 million by Kirinyaga Construction (K) Ltd who were the lowest, and also Sh295 million by HZ & Co.

When some of the contractors expressed their concerns, the World Bank and other concerned authorities said the contention was premature because the tenders had not yet been evaluated and awarded.

However, complaints go beyond just figures. Local contractors, were hardly considered for the World Bank-sponsored works. Only only Kirinyaga Construction (K) Limited, a firm owned by an indigenous Kenyan, won two tenders – actually two, for the repair and rehabilitation of Makadara/Kasarani road and Kibera/Kilimani road.

Indigenous entrepreneurs want to have a bigger share of this multi-billion-shilling cake.

This is what the government has failed to address as tenders go to foreign-owned multi-national corporations, some who are already choked with same construction work elsewhere within the country.

Some contractors feel the World Bank's tendering procedure has deliberately and blatantly inflated the roads' development costs to benefit "foreign" firms and by shutting out the local bidders. "They are discriminating against local firms," said claims a Kenyan one roads engineer.

Indeed, building local capacity is the issue at the centre of a crusade by the Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya.

When the news conference by Mr Mwengi is finally held, the issues likely to emerge will include: What steps should the government take to ensure help better development of an indigenous construction industry; without compromising on quality?

At the moment, questions overwhelm answers.

A clique of contractors feel the industry is gradually falling prey to unconventional .forces. Engineer Evans Goro, of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya, is among the consultants disgusted with the tendering process for the World Bank roads project. He says it is skewed in favour of a cabal in the industry.of colleagues in the profession.

"Some individuals in collusion with government officials have been handpicked to carry out surveys on the condition of roads in Nairobi. The same consultants," Mr Goro argues, "are purposely batched with others whose proposals were bound to fail. This is done to ensure that those who are close to authorities succeed in their proposals."

"Trickery goes on unnoticed because the World Bank does not seriously scrutinise the processing of the proposals and tends to trust erroneously - as it has turned to be - the project implementation agencies so much as to enable them to take advantage of the situation," Mr Goro argued in a letter to the World Bank country director Harold Wackmann.

World Bank says it keeps off the tendering business, leaving that to implementing authority (the government). which should to oversee the works. "We are a bank, we worry about repayment. How you use your money is not really central to us," argues a source at the bank's Nairobi office.

Winning bidders care least about the controversy, in fact, they see malice in accusations directed at them and the financiers. "In the two projects, the tenders were evaluated. It was competitive bidding. The bids were re-evaluated. The prices (quoted) depend on the complexity of the project and the work involved," says W. Zhang of the China Road & Bridge Corporation (K), which has won two tenders for repair of city roads.

Management of TM & AM Africa, which jointly with Stirling International Civil Engineering Co. will rehabilitate roads in Industrial Area, does not want to be drawn into the controversy. "If the employer (Government) has not complained, why should anybody do that. The World Bank and the Office of the President have not complained, so who are you (to do that)," asked a manager, who declined to divulge his name.

Although they will want to dismiss complaints of irregularities, the row will not go away that easily. On the ground, signs abound that some works have been sub-standard.

Indeed, a number of city roads rehabilitated a couple of years back have already caved in to potholes owing to the constructors shoddy work as well as ill-maintenance. In Eastleigh, the First Avenue is almost impassable six years since it was rehabilitated. Meanwhile, the key Juja Road, which was closed a year go to pave way for repair work, has been reduced to a pot-holed patchwork.

This poignant state of affairs has angered the 600-member Kenya Association of Manufacturers, which now seeks a commission to probe the tendering and implementation of key road projects in the country. Such a commission, argues KAM chairman Chris Kirubi, will bring to fore information on who built which road, how much went to the project, how long the exercise lasted and whether the job was done well.

It will also tackle issues of compensation in case one party faults on the agreement.

However, not all are convinced that such an arrangement can be relied on to deliver. "We do not need more commissions. They are a waste of public money because their findings are never implemented," Michael Mills of the Karen/Langata Residents Association said in an interview with this writer a couple of months ago.

The association's members, disgusted with the corruption rot, seeks permission to have Karen and Langata estates operate as a district independent of the council, meaning that it wants the organisation to be the tax collector and "deliverer" of services.

The contradiction just shows the discontent and disillusionment among the public over failure by authorities to deliver services against the huge taxes paid by citizens. Every year, the government earns billions of shillings in form of taxes. The Fuel Levy, in particular, chalks billions every week.

However, whereas a fraction of the money oils pockets of shrewd operators, a chunk ends up in controversial projects that later turn out to be white elephants. In the case of transport infrastructure, a number of roads either exists in books or have been abandoned midway, before their completion.

Ironically, stalled projects are those contracted to individuals high up in the government or those with strong political connections. For instance, the beneficiaries of a Sh2 billion fuel levy-funded road projects in Nairobi, it is alleged, are a State House operative, a top politician and his son.

The modus operandi of this cabal of shrewd contractors, some who have no machinery to undertake any construction work, is to ensnare top government officials at the Treasury, and ministries concerned with roads, civic bodies, and agriculture.

Former Finance Minister Yekoyada Masakhalia, sources allege, was a victim of this cartel. Before he knew what was happening, say a Treasury source, he was hoodwinked into releasing a Sh1 billion cheque which his predecessor Simeon Nyachae had refused to remit because of what he perceived as irregularities in the tendering and implementation of key road projects.

All told, the simmering row over tendering for the rehabilitation of Nairobi roads raises questions on transparency and accountability on the part of financiers and project implementors. Were all stakeholders and bidders kept abreast of the entire tendering process? Who were the bidders and how did it happen that high bidders were the ones who won?

At a casual glance, the disparity in costing is so huge that a good explanation is needed. Trying to justify that a Sh10 million-construction job can also cost Sh74 million can indeed be a taunting job.

It is therefore hardly surprising that Kenyans are pessimistic; the taxpayers have lost so much livelihood courtesy of corrupt authorities.

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