IGG To Probe Tender Award

By John Eremu THE Inspector General of Government (IGG), Jotham Tumwesigye, has started investigations into allegations of irregularities in the award of a sh14b tender for publishing primary schools textbooks. Four publishing houses disqualified from the tender process have disputed the award, saying the process was mishandled and that bid conditions were bent in favour of some companies. They are Fountain Publishers, Oxford University Press (UK), Oxford University Press (EA) and Rorash Books limited. The publishers told The New Vision that the bid conditions were flouted when some of the successful companies got conditional approval while others were rejected outright. An official from Fountain Publishers said they were taking their samples for technical analysis to challenge their disqualification. Some documents from Oxford University Press tender were reportedly missing on the tender opening day despite the bid administrator, Alice Ibale, having signed acknowledging receipt of all the documents. “Oxford University Press has been in existence for the last 500 years and we have bid internationally. I think these people did not want to evaluate any of our books lest we get through. There was negligence or corruption somewhere and we have written to the IGG about it,” a company official said. The IGG was reportedly in a meeting on Friday and The New Vision failed to get his comment. However, the inspectorate spokesman, Stephen Kabera, confirmed that they had received the complaints and that investigations had started. The Ministry of Education in December last year called in tenders for the supply of 1.6 million primary school text books and teachers’ guides under a sh14.3b World Bank-funded programme. A total of 14 companies responded to the bid including Cambridge University Press represented here by Alphamat, Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC), The Monitor Publications, Pearson Educational Publishers represented by Kamalu Longman. Oxford was disqualified for reportedly not providing teachers’ guides while Fountain was dropped for reportedly failing to provide samples of some books it was to supply. Ends