EASSy. At this rate, I am going to bet my 'money' on KDNs
Flag....
walu.
So Kenya is pushing full throttle with its vision of
building a cable to
link the country to international fibre. The East African
Marine System
(TEAMS), promoted by government and expected to draw
private financing
as well, has been touted as the country’s answer to
EASSy’s delays in
getting off the ground – and in satisfying Kenya’s
misgivings about the
EASSy protocol, the role NEPAD has been playing in the
initiative and –
some say – South Africa’s attempt to dominate the show.
But in the rush to get TEAMS off the ground, did the
country ignore best
practice in procurement? That is the question an article
in today’s The
EastAfrican newspaper asks. That is the question the
country’s Attorney
General’s Chambers has been asking.
Their queries refer to the manner in which Tyco
International Ltd. Was
handed the $2.7 m deal to do prelim work on the deal
“without
competitive bidding”. One could join the AG’s office in
asking
questions: Will TEAMS go ahead with this plan anyway, now
that some of
the entities being expected to fund the construction of
TEAMS have moved
a step further with EASSy. Here we are referring to the
likes of Telekom
Kenya. And if EASSy goes ahead, then Flag Telcom/
Reliance Telecom
actualise their advanced plan to build their cable (of
which Kenya Data
Network is a keenly involved party, just as it is in
EASSy) how viable
will these cables be? For more on cables planned on East
coast of
Wakabi
--
Fresh snarl-ups in Kenya-Fujaira fibre optic cable
project
STAFF WRITER, The EastaAfrican, March 12, 2007
Controversy is simmering between the Office of the
Attorney General and
the Ministry of Information and Communications over the
procurement for
a multimillion-dollar plan by Kenya to build a
fibre-optic cable link
from Mombasa to Fujaira in the United Arab Emirates.
Known as The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the
project is expected
to be launched in parallel with the $200 million East
African Submarine
Cable System (EASSy) — a fibre-optic cable link along the
eastern
seaboard of Africa, from South Africa to Sudan via a
number of landing
points including Mombasa.
The EastAfrican has learnt that the Office of the
Attorney General has
raised queries over the manner in which Tyco
International Ltd — a
transnational that operates in 100 countries — was in
January this year
awarded a $2.7 million contract by the Information
Ministry to conduct a
marine survey without competitive bidding.
The ministry had in January sought and was granted an
exemption from the
Directorate of Public Procurement to procure the contract
for a marine
survey through single-sourcing.
However, the Office of the Attorney General has — in a
letter signed by
Solicitor-General Wanjuki Muchemi — argued that the
application to the
directorate was not done according to procedure and
demanded minutes of
the ministry’s technical evaluation committee that
decided that the
project be single-sourced.
Apparently, the ministry had sought the exemption on the
grounds of the
onset of the monsoon season in the Indian Ocean and the
consequent need
to fast-track the project.
It is understood that, during an earlier meeting in Dubai
between Kenya
government officials and the Dubai-based Etisalat Ltd —
the main private
sector sponsors of the project — the point was made to
the officials
that the marine survey contract and the cable
construction contract
could not be awarded to separate companies.
The government had been warned that it was rare for a
cable contractor
to accept a marine survey conducted by another firm.
Experts had also told the government officials that
marine surveys are
usually deemed to be part and parcel of construction
works and that
awarding the survey component separately would amount to
giving the
construction contract to the same firm.
The Office of the Attorney General wants to know why the
issues raised
by experts had been ignored.
TEAMS is one of the largest projects being undertaken by
the government
this year. The government decided to launch the project
when it realised
that the EASSy project was facing too many delays.
The government is set to invite bids any time from now
for a financial
arranger who will design a plan to raise money for the
project,
tentatively expected to be completed by early next year.
The contract will be awarded competitively by April this
year.
The government — through Telkom Kenya — is working with
Dubai-based
Etilasat to build the cable.
The private sector will be invited to either buy shares
in the project
or will be brought in on the basis of proved capacity to
raise funds
through models worked out by the financial arranger.
The information and communications technology sector in
Kenya has for
years been held back by reliance on expensive satellite
connectivity to
the international network.
Interest in construction of fibre-optic cable links to
the Kenya Coast
has risen dramatically and Kenya appears set to acquire
cheaper
international connectivity in less than two years.
First is the planned $200 million EASSy, which is
beginning to pick up
momentum after a prolonged three-year gestation period.
Currently, the proposal is for an open-access operation
modelled to
allow new entrants to use the infrastructure without
paying high entry
charges.
This is expected to result in low costs for connectivity
and exponential
growth in transmission.
According to the financing plan, up to 85 per cent ($170
million) of the
funding is to come from development finance institutions,
including the
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The fish are biting.
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