Provincial supreme court judge M. Heather Robertson has ordered HRM to pay Amber Contracting of Dartmouth $147,560 plus court costs as restitution for “bid shopping.” As explained Robertson’s decision, Amber won the bid for a contract related to the construction of the new Dartmouth sewage plant. While the $570,612 bid was lower than two other bids, it far exceeded the $158,240 estimate that a consultant had established for the work.
Rather than award the contract and find the money, the city re-bid the entire job. On the second go-round, a fourth bidder, Eisener Contracting of Fall River, under-bid Amber. Of course, Eisener knew what the other companies had bid on the project, and could under-price its competitors.
The issues raised are complicated—read the entire decision here—but in the end, Robertson found that “here is in fact an issue of credibility with all of the HRM employees…”
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2008.