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Attorney-General clears hurdle to disclosures of secret bidders

 

Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki has removed a key hurdle to disclosure of secret bidders for State contracts even as he moved to seal a loophole that threatened to stall public tenders through bid-rigging and lawsuits on data privacy.

In a submission to Parliament, the AG seeks to alter a section of a law that requires State firms to disclose the full identities of company owners who won contracts with them.

“These regulations seek to amend Regulation 13 of the Companies (Beneficial Ownership Information) Regulations 2020, which restricts the beneficial ownership information,” Mr Kariuki said in a memorandum to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Michael Sialai.

“The general intention of the proposed amendment is to make public procurement process transparent as well as enable the government to publish important information about a company in matters of public interest whereas the rest is to streamline some regulations to give better effect of the Act,” he added.

In a key change, the AG now wants all winners of State contracts publicly listed on the website of the Public Procurement Authority (PPRA). This is a departure from the current law where the disclosure of such information was locked from the public and pegged on restrictive conditions including a written request by authorities.

Curb privacy suits

But in a bid to curb privacy suits, the tabled amendments seek to block the public from accessing beneficiaries’ sensitive personal information.

This, the AG said, “shall only be made to a competent authority, the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, or the Public-Private Partnership Authority upon a written request by the competent authority, the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, or the Public-Private Partnership Authority to the Registrar.” 

However, the AG noted that the State would publicly release such information in special circumstances of public interest.

The changes, the AG added, were adopted due to concerns of potential abuse of trade secrets that distort competitive bids.

“This provision was adopted in consideration of the legitimate needs for the protection of trade secrets and proprietary information and other privacy concerns, as well as the need to avoid information that can be used by interested suppliers to distort competition in the procurement process such as bid-rigging as well as conflict of interest,” he said.     BY DAILY NATION  

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