Posted on 02/07/2005 6:29:54 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - With state Senate hearings scheduled to analyze a struggling procurement program, a Sacramento-based auto dealer accused the Department of General Services Monday of improperly awarding a $21 million police car contract.
An attorney representing Downtown Ford, which is filing a formal protest, said state officials violated their own bid policies in giving the contract last month to a rival dealer after Downtown Ford won an initial auction to sell the state up to 1,000 police cars.
The protest comes as lawmakers and other officials are paying more attention to the state's "strategic sourcing" program, which has delivered only a small percentage of the $96 million in savings expected by June 30. Using private sector bargaining methods to save money, the program is a key part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's government-reorganizing California Performance Review.
Last June the administration hired Virginia-based CGI-AMS to help handle purchasing; the company's fee would be a cut of the savings. But the company has finished just one other deal, a new office supply contract the department said will save the state $9 million through June 2006.
The state has traditionally bought its patrol vehicles for the California Highway Patrol each year by accepting sealed bids on paper from car dealers, with the lowest bidder winning the contract.
This year, however, CGI-AMS and its partner, Texas-based A.T. Kearney, created a "reverse auction" to find the best price. That auction took place online, as potential sellers bid aimed to make each successive bid lower than the previous one. It lasted 12 hours because offers could be made in as little as $10 increments.
Downtown Ford won the bidding marathon, but with a low bid higher than what the state paid last year for the same cars. So, the auction provided no net savings to the state.
State officials then opened another round of bids, this time on paper, and eventually got a better price from a new winner, Folsom Lake Ford.
Downtown Ford claimed it should have received the contract because it won the first auction and the state improperly opened the new round of bidding.
But Department of General Services spokesman Matt Bender said the state violated no rules by seeking new bids and giving the contract to Folsom Lake Ford. A Folsom Lake Ford spokesman declined to comment.
Complaints about the auction attracted the interest of Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge, who wrote General Services Director Ron Joseph about whether the process is fair and protects taxpayers.
Noted as one of the Legislature's toughest watchdogs on state spending, McClintock said it's good the department is "trying something new" but that "reopening negotiations after the bidding has concluded adds an additional incentive to bid high, knowing that there will be a second bite at the apple when negotiations are reopened. The concern is that what they are doing in the short-term might cause the costs to the state to be higher in the longer term because bidders will say they are not playing that game."
Also, McClintock wrote, companies may "have a perverse incentive to maximize savings on a contract for immediate reward," which hurts the state in the future if dealers don't bid as actively.
Other officials seeking more information on the purchasing contract are Treasurer Phil Angelides and Sen. Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from Sunol who leads a Senate committee that will conduct hearings into the program.
A spokeswoman for CGI-AMS declined comment on either the bid protest or McClintock's letter.
---
On the Net:
http://www.dgs.ca.gov/default.htm
Department of General Services
http://www.governor.ca.gov/state/govsite/gov-homepage.jsp
Gov.'s home page
http://cpr.ca.gov/
California Performance Review
McClintock Bump!
Any request for public bids I've ever seen reserves the right to reject any & all bids, so what is the legal basis for Downtown Ford's complaint?
Tom Chorneau is probably a Girly Boy AP reporter who normally writes articles pushing the gay agenda. When they aren't doing that, they write articles taking swipes at GW, Arnold or someother Republican.
Below is a search on his articles pushing the gay agenda:
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=Tom%20Chorneau%20Gay
Where have you been all evening? Watchin CSI Miami, I'll bet!
Watching 24 and cheering when the terrorists get whacked or exposed.
CSI Miami can be so damn PC in its shows. So I seldom watch it.
I agree, but Mrs. Waspman's hooked on it. I think she likes the redheaded woodpecker!
Hate crime.......better call the thought police.
And thanks for the link.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.