The NDP is raising questions surrounding the recent cancellation of a tender for air purifiers for the province’s schools.
VOCM News has been told that 26 companies bid on the tender which was eventually rejected.
Business owners have reached out to VOCM News asking serious questions about the tender process and why bids made on the tender were canceled.
Aerus Canada is supplying 5,500 units, 1,500 of which were ordered last week, at a cost of nearly $8-million to the English School District.
Last week Director of the English School District Tony Stack indicated that units were already being trucked to the province.
NDP Education critic Jim Dinn today released an open letter written to Minister Tom Osborne and Tony Stack about the alarms raised by the tendering process. They include the one-week tendering process and the fact that in the last two days companies were not allowed to ask questions for clarification. Dinn is also asking about what he calls a “less than transparent tendering process that resulted in all bid submissions being deemed non-compliant” by the Public Procurement Agency. The NLESD was then left to determine the winning bid and appropriate price without guidance from the agency, says Dinn.
NLESD CEO Tony Stack Responds to Concerns Raised
Meanwhile, the Newfoundland and Labrador English School district CEO is responding to the concerns raised by Dinn.
Tony Stack says the specifications for the air purifiers were drafted in consultation with the province’s industrial hygienist.
He says after an analysis of the submissions and consultation with the Public Procurement Agency, it was determined that “no bidder was completely compliant.”
Given the large number of submissions, Stack explains that the district had the option of determining “a fair and reasonable cost for a product that met its needs.”
The Aerus model was chosen, with Stack noting that the provincial industrial hygienist confirmed that the product met the district’s needs.
As for the price of the Aerus bid, Stack says they were in the middle when bids were ranked lowest to highest.
He says the Aerus product was “much better” than some of the lower bids when the total estimated cost of ownership was analyzed.
