Martin O’Malley is onto something: Maryland’s system for obtaining billions of dollars in contract services is horribly broken.He describes the state’s procurement fiasco as “one of the constant pebbles in our shoe.”
Make that a boulder.
Bollixed contract awards are gumming up modernization and improvement projects. Years of delay are routine in big contract disputes, which drag on interminably. Arguments rage over bidding irregularities, violations of procurement law in the bidding process and faulty decisions by procurement officers that skew outcomes.
The most recent embarrassment: a $4.5 million rejected contract for a child-support call center. An appeals board charged the procurement officer with “gross errors,” inexcusably late changes in the contract specifications and mystifying conclusions about the bidders’ qualifications. It overturned the award, calling the process “deeply flawed,” “unreasonable, illogical and improper.”...
Gazette Opinion piece continues at this link.
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Mr. Rascovar may be on to something but isn't it Gov. O'Malley himself who filled the shoe with pebbles? I am thinking of the ease with which FieldTurfTarkett receives contract after contract throughout the state for artificial turf installation at our publicly-owned parks and schools. O'Malley is the chief executive of the state. Wasn't it part of his job to see that this agency was running smoothly? Similar with the PEPCO disasters. Gov. O'Malley appointed 3 of the 5 PSC commissioners. And now he is shocked, shocked.
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