Liberia: Did NEC Cheat for Laxton to Win BVR Contract?

With the National Elections Commission (NEC) critically close to the deadline for the commencement of the 2022 voter registration process, one of the bidders has challenged the NEC chair’s latest choice for the controversial biometric voter registration contract award.  

The challenger, joint venture Waymark/Mwetana, said in its bid-challenge notification that “NEC violated the Public Procurement and Concessions Act (PPCA) by not only continuing to consider Laxton, but also deciding to ultimately deem Laxton to be the most responsive bidder.” 

Waymark/Mwetana itself qualified and participated in both the evaluation and reevaluation conducted by NEC’s bid evaluation panel.

In its letter dated November 30, copy of which was shared with the Daily Observer, Waymark/Mwetena said NEC was in error for considering Laxton to do the BVR and, as such, it (NEC) would let anything slide away.

“Our bid documents and the video evidence of the re-demonstration prove that Waymark/Mwetana satisfied all the evaluation and qualification criteria contained in Section III of the bidding documents. Waymark/Mwetana’s responsiveness was reinforced by NEC’s Re-Evaluation Report that named our joint venture as one of the three responsive bidders.”

“Considering NEC rightly deemed our bid to be responsive and our bid price is roughly US$700,000.00 lower than the other two bidders, NEC had a statutory obligation, in keeping with the above referenced Section 65(1) of the PPCA, to award the contract to Waymark/Mwetana since we met all the qualification requirements and we were the lowest responsive bidder,” Lebogang M. Matjila, the authorized representative of the JV said.

According to Matjila's letter, the absence of bid price as an evaluation criterion is puzzling “because NEC was required to evaluate the bids” it received in accordance with Section III of the bid document.

Matjila noted that: “This section contains the criteria for NEC to evaluate the bidders and determine whether the bidders have the required qualifications and the first evaluation criteria mentioned in the “Evaluation Criteria” segment of Section III is the bid price.”

NEC’s bid document required all companies vying for consideration for the contract to submit audited financial reports but Waymark/Mwetena said Laxton failed to provide the required audited financial statements.

The NEC chairperson, in a press statement on October 25, mentioned that Laxton only provided financial statements for the fiscal years 2020 and 2019 and she added that Laxton’s financial statements were not even audited and that Laxton expressed a condition regarding its ability to pre-finance,” he said. 

“Section 62(9) of the PPCA states that if a bid “contains material deviations from or reservations to the terms, conditions and specifications in the bidding documents, [the bid] shall not be considered further.” In light of Laxton’s apparent material breach of the bidding requirements, NEC violated the PPCA by not only continuing to consider Laxton but also deciding to ultimately deem Laxton to be the most responsive bidder,” Waymark/Mwetana said.

They contended that “One of the most stringent technical requirements in the bidding document was the use of tablets. Waymark/Mwetana used one of the gold standards of tablets — Microsoft Surface — to meet this requirement.” 

“Our PowerPoint presentation further detailed the specifications of the rugged Microsoft Surface that we would use during our implementation of the project. Given that bidders’ redemonstration were open to the public and stakeholders, we are aware that Laxton Group used a laptop instead of a tablet.”

The issue about Laxton’s use of laptop instead of the rugged biometric tablet when it did its presentation was confirmed by the NEC chairperson Lansanah, at the October 25 press conference and was also reported by a number of media outlets, including the Daily Observer.

“In the aforementioned press conference that was held by the NEC Chairperson, she conceded that Laxton’s use of a laptop rather than the required tablet amounted to a failure by Laxton to meet technical specification required in the bidding document. This is another deviation from the requirements that should have disqualified Laxton,” Matjila said.

On delivery schedule, Matjila’s joint venture expressed more disappointment in NEC’s selection of LAXTON when the company had expressed during its bid that it would bring in materials in 147 days as of the date of signing of contract should it be considered and awarded the contract.

Waymark Infotech and Mwetena’s delivery time was put at 50 days.

“Given this difference and the other deviations from the requirements, we are at a loss of words as to how NEC concluded that Laxton submitted a more responsive bid. We were further perplexed as to NEC permitting Laxton to modify their delivery time thereby giving Laxton an advantage. Section 62(9) of the PPCA declares, “[A] bidder shall not be permitted to correct or withdraw material deviations or reservations once bids have been opened.”  This is an additional violation of the PPCA committed by NEC in order to prevent Waymark/Mwetana from being awarded the contract,” the complaint continued.

Waymark/Mwetana contends that for the reasons stated, NEC has violated the PPCA and the bidding documents when it concluded that Laxton was the most responsive bidder and called on the Commission to respond to its complaint within fifteen calendar days as of the date of its receipt.

When contacted, Davidetta Browne Lansanah responded saying, “There is no reaction. You probably can call Waymark and they will better be able to explain what they wrote.”

Senate Meets with NEC today

Amid the controversies, the Senate will, for the third time, meet with the Board of Commissioners of the National Elections Commission.

Senator Henrique Tokpah said the Senate is looking forward to having fruitful consultation with the Commission in a bid to resolve the issues confronting the progress of the biometric voter registration process.

Recently, the board of Commissioners was in a meeting with Bhofal Chambers, Speaker of the House of Representatives, but details from the meeting remain undisclosed, except that Lansanah did not participate in the meeting because she arrived late, mainly when her colleagues had concluded consultation with the Speaker.

Both the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC) and the NEC have, on two occasions, appeared before the Senate to give their respective reasons why the process was stalled.

By then PPCC had denied NEC twice the “No Objection” approval for Ekemp on grounds that the Chinese company was not qualified to do the contract.

PPCC, however, issued NEC the “No Objection” on November 24 for Laxton to be awarded the contract.