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Bidder for CUC waterline project loses appeal
The Office of Public Auditor last week denied Tropex Garden’s appeal protesting the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s decision to award a waterline project to GPPC Inc.
Tropex Garden was among the three responders to the project.
“CUC based its decision in denying the protest on valid factors, determining that the grammatical error in its award notice letter was immaterial and that it had previously decided the protest issues raised by Tropex in its April 30, 2012 letter,” stated OPA’s decision in the case signed by OPA legal counsel James W. Taylor and concurred by Public Auditor Michael Pai.
OPA also found that Tropex’s letter of April 3 was considered a bid protest-and not informational only-because it complained about possible defects in two other bids and was submitted after Tropex had become an aggrieved bidder.
OPA also found CUC’s decision denying the company’s protest filed on April 3 as valid since the defect in GPPC’s bid was immaterial and the pricing calculation error was factored into the agency’s award decision calculations.
Following notification from CUC that it would not be receiving the award on March 30, 2012, Tropex sent letters to CUC, considered by the utilities firm as a protest.
Tropex sent two letters to CUC in April, the first one showing claims of possible bid defect in two of the bids received by the utilities firm-from GPPC and USA Fanter.
The second letter was identified as a bona fide bid protest by Tropex alleging that CUC had improperly rank-ordered the bidders.
CUC, in its April 24 letter to Tropex Garden, denied the protest on the merits of correcting the grammatical defect in CUC’s March 30 award notification letter to Tropex.
The company appealed to OPA on April 30.
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
