On the top menu, click on tenders. On the dropdown, select ‘active tenders.’
Skim through active tenders there within your category and click view. On the new window click on view again. This will open a preview of the tender.
Look for one with a negotiation number. Most of the government institutions and county government tenders have a negotiation number.
As for this example, I have found one from the county government with a negotiation number.
Download, fill the tender and put together all the documents needed as attachment in one folder ready to submit.
Tender Submission On IFMIS
You need an IFMIS account to file your tender. If you don’t have one already, you can sign up on the portal www.supplier.treasury.go.ke
Fill in the required details to sign up.
Once done, login to your account to submit your Tender application. This is where the negotiation number you picked earlier in the tender document will come into play.
On the right side of the page, you will see menu and below it there is a folder named sourcing supplier.
Click on it to open the dropdown. Under the sourcing folder click on sourcing homepage.
You will be taken to this page here. On top you can see number then a box to the left as you can see below.
Paste the negotiation number on the box and click on go. You will be take to this page here where you will see the tender. Click on the number again to open.
From here you can complete the tender document and submit. And that is it. If you have any question and need help, click on help link here. This will take you to a page with contact of the support team.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Share your feedback in the comments section below.
And if you need help to produce professional video tutorials for softwares and apps, let me know here.
Until next time, bye bye and take care. Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.
Based on the statitisc’s from the Public Procurement Information Portal (PPIP), in the financial year 2020-2021, out of 4770 contracts that were awarded, none of them was on the AGPO program.
This begs the question; do tenders allocated to youth, women and people with disabilities really exist?
In the year 2013, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta launched the AGPO program (Access to Government Procurement Opportunities). The AGPO program’s main mission was to give youth, women, and people with disabilities access to government procurement opportunities.
It’s now 9 years down the line since the program was launched and no data to indicate that some tenders have been awarded to this group has been recorded by the PPIP.
What does this mean? Lets dive in further and find out.
A quick visit to the AGPO online portal shows the latest tenders to this group was published in the year 2018-2019. This thus indicates that either, the program stopped being implemented or there no latest tender for this group.
However, there are two things that you can do on the AGPO site as we speak.
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The first one is to apply for a certificate, popularly known as AGPO Certificate by clicking on the sign-up button. The registration process requires that you submit all the mandatory documents to qualify for tenders under this program.
You are required to attach a copy of your Kenyan National ID issued by the government of Kenya. Alternatively, you can submit your Kenyan passport. To learn more on how to acquire nation ID, click here.
Business Registration Certificate or Certificate of Incorporation
Secondly, attach a copy of the Business registration certificate for sole proprietorship enterprises. For limited companies, submit a Certificate of incorporation. You can register a business or company on the BRS Portal.
CR12 for Limited Company From Registrar of of Companies
Thirdly, attach CR12; a document that shows the directors of the company as well your company location address. This is system generated document. You can obtain this document on Business Registration Service (BRS) portal.
Partnership Deed for Partnership Business
This requirement only applies to businesses registered by more than one person. A partnership deed is a copy of the deed you submitted to the registrar of companies on registration. It is a legally binding document of all members (partners) in a business.
This is a document that you attach showing that your business or company is Tax compliant. It is a system generated document from Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) ITAX portal.
National Construction Authority Letter – Certificate for Construction Category
This is a certificate issued by the National Construction Authority (NCA). The certificate acquisition fee starts from Ksh. 5000 to 100,000 depending on the category. There are other additional requirements to this that you can see on the site while making your application.
Once you have completed your application, wait for AGPO approval. The AGPO certificate will be sent to you by e-mail when approved.
AGPO approved enterprises are listed on the AGPO site. You can verify if your company has been listed using Verify business link on the AGPO site.
But with all this done, where is the business? Is this it? That’s your assignment. I have done mine.
The question which still remains unanswered is, why has AGPO not recorded any statistics with the PPIP to indicate the number of tenders awarded to youth, women, and people with disabilities?
As I close, I would like to know your experience tendering for business under the AGPO.
Have you ever been awarded a tender? If yes, how was your experience?
If you need help to create and produce professional marketing videos for your business, Let me know here. Alternatively, you can send me an e-mail on the contact us page.
Its not easy to qualify for a tender as new entrepreneur in Kenya. This is owing to many requirements that one needs to submit in order to be prequalified. On top of that, some of the mandatory requirements are paid.
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For instance, a new entrepreneur with excellent skills in a given category will not qualify for any open tender without providing trading license issued by the government. Fact is, for one to get a trading license, you must have an physical office.
So how can one afford to pay for an office if he/she is starting up?
This takes to the well known category of AGPO (Access to Government Procurement Opportunities). For this, you does not need to have a trading license to be prequalified. One can use their own residential address as the location of their business.
But is this all? What if you have all these requirements yet still don’t get invited to quote for tenders?
Why is it that despite you submitting all the required documents in order to be qualified for a tender, you still don’t get it?
That’s what I will be focusing on this blogpost. Here are things that might be barring you from being prequalified for a tender.
Expired Tax Compliance Certificate
Tax Compliance Certificate expires after 1 year from the date of issue. If within the year, you have defaulted from paying tax, you will deemed uncompliant until you clear your tax debts.
This thus means that once you clear your tax debts, you will be issued with the mandatory Tax Compliance Certificate. Some entrepreneurs take the risk of attaching expired TCC when submitting prequalification documents thinking that the procurement officers will not countercheck and verify all documents attached.
Don’t be fooled. They do and this might be the reason you have not been prequalified.
Fake Business Address
Most people don’t take their business addresses seriously. I have learnt this the hard after I closed my business due to the covid-19 pandemic. When I closed down offices and began operating from home, it meant that my business address also changed.
I never thought it was serious so I didn’t bother to update my business address on the registrar of companies portal. While many tendering companies will not notify you the reasons behind you not being prequalified, its good not to take anything for granted. Each time you change business location, update address with the registrar of companies.
Officers from the tendering company will use the address details that you have provided in the tender document to trace your office. If it is not existent, they will treat your application unresponsive.
Lack of Clear Track Record
Track record demonstrates how you are experienced in the said field. Some companies registered with ‘Enterprises‘ or ‘General suppliers‘ at the end of company name usually don’t specialize on anything.
People registering such company names pry on those tenders that requires no training and probably on loophole in the tendering process. If you are keen, most corrupt practices are linked to such companies with ‘Enterprises‘ or ‘General suppliers‘ at the end of the company name i.e Kingaste Enterprises. They are not specific on the services they provide.
If you lack solid track record in a particular field, it will be hard to qualify due to competition.
Forgery
While forgery is illegal and can land you in jail, some people still forge documents to date. There are many software’s out there that you can use to forge documents. Depending on the procurement officer’s level of experience, you might get away with forged documents.
If your deliver quality services, you will be lucky with your forgery. But if you deliver poor services they will get back to you and investigate further on the documents you submitted. At the end, your case might end up in court and the procurement officer who awarded you the contract will be retrenched.
Attempting to Bribe
With all said, ‘bribery‘ and ‘who do you know‘ narrative is still rooted in Kenya. After submitting all the mandatory required documents, some entrepreneurs will still take a step further and try to bribe someone in the procurement department in order to get that tender. If you have this habit, then, that explains why you are not getting that tender.
I must applaud the Jubilee government for using all the tools available to fight corruption. Technology in a big winner and has really helped minimize the level of corruption and bribery.
These are five main reasons you are not getting prequalified for any government tender. Did I miss out something? Please let me know in the comments section below.
Until next time, take care.
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