The Department of Public Works “failed to thoroughly review the responsiveness of the proposals submitted for the $100 million lease financing, renovation, and rehabilitation project for Simon Sanchez High School and other schools," according to the final decision released by the Office of Public Accountability today on the consolidated appeals filed by Core Tech International Corp.
Core Tech filed the appeal at the OPA after DPW, the lead procurement agency for the RFP, denied their protest.
OPA also said that DPW “may cancel or revise the solicitation of the proposed award” for the RFP noting that the department has violated Guam’s procurement laws and regulations as well as a section of the RFP by failing to properly evaluate the proposals to determine if they are responsive.
According to the OPA, DPW violated the RFP’s $100 million limit by allowing the Guam Education Facilities Foundation (GEFF) --- the highest ranked offeror ---- to exceed this limit.
OPA said that while cancelling the solicitation will “cause the greatest amount of delay, it would resolve all the deficiencies.” “Doing so would give DPW the opportunity to revise the RFP’s language prior to its re-issuance.”
However, should DPW decide not to cancel the solicitation in its entirety, “it must cancel its proposed award to GEFF and its selection of GEFF as the most qualified offeror.” OPA said DPW could then thoroughly evaluate all the proposals to ensure they are responsive and begin negotiations with the offeror it selects as the most qualified.
Read the decision here: http://www.opaguam.org/sites/default/files/opa-pa-16-007_and_16-011_decision_0.pdf