The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) will soon publish more information about bids for contracts over $100,000.
The bidder name and the amount will be included in contract award reports, after board directors voted in favour at the March 25 corporate and administrative services committee meeting. Directors Lori Pratt (Halfmoon Bay) and Alton Toth (Sechelt) voted against.
The decision came after directors asked staff at the March 11 meeting to explore the option of including more information in tender bid award reports on contracts over $100,000.
The District of Sechelt and the Town of Gibsons both publish bidder names and amounts for contracts over $75,000 and $100,000 respectively.
In the staff report’s recommendations, option two said “This ‘could’ be done. It would ... raise the risk profile in terms of release of public information and may not provide additional context to assist with board decision making where price is only one of many factors being evaluated.”
Gibsons director Bill Beamish said he would rather have more information.
“I’m not aware of any communities that actually award strictly on the basis of cost, there’s always an evaluation. The evaluation criteria are listed in the tender so bidders are aware of how they're going to be evaluated. I think we have a due diligence in terms of … making these decisions,” Beamish said.
He questioned why the SCRD board is receiving staff recommendations without the context of the evaluation process, and raised the fact that the names and bids are publicly available via BC Bid. While directors could individually look up that information, it is not currently included in reports from staff.
“I just think that if all we’re being asked to do is to accept a recommendation – we have no way of measuring that recommendation other than saying staff did it, staff’s competent to do it, we delegated that to staff – why are we even making the decision at that point if we don't have some metrics to measure that by?”
Elphinstone director Donna McMahon said she is happy with the procurement policy, but does want information that’s publicly available.
“If the information is readily available to the public on BC Bid, then I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t also be able to get it without having to individually go out and look things up on BC Bid,” McMahon said.
West Howe Sound director Mark Hiltz asked if the board could pilot the new information for a year to see how it goes, saying he is in favour of more information for context and oversight.
Directors who were opposed said they didn’t feel that they need more details in order to make a decision on contract bids.
By voting for more information to be included in contract award reports, the board policy and solicitation documents will need to be modified so that bidders are aware of the new publication policy.
