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OPA denies protest in CHC billing services
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Posted on Jul 14 2011
The Office of the Public Auditor has denied the appeal filed by the Resources Management International Corp. against the decision to award the Commonwealth Health Center’s medical and dental billing services to another firm.
In a four-page decision issued on July 6, Public Auditor Mike Pai denied all of RMIC’s five complaints and affirmed the decision of the Division of Procurement and Supply to award the contract to Guam Marianas Collection Agency.
RMIC was one of the bidders for CHC’s medical and dental billing collection. The losing bidder filed its protest with the Division of Procurement and Supply on March 14, then elevated its appeal to the Office of Public Auditor on April 6, 2011. The Procurement and Supply director subsequently issued a decision on April 12. The company then re-filed its appeal on April 13.
RMIC argued that the division director’s decision contained no measurable basis for disregarding the lowest bid submission.
OPA’s decision, however, indicated that the technical merit scores were dramatically disparate. It said the winning bidder’s score was 275 compared to RMIC, with only had 153. Pai also said that RMIC failed to prove any fraud, bad faith, conflict of interest, or actual bias committed by the evaluators.
RMIC had argued that the winning bidder was not qualified to do business in the CNMI at the time of the bid. OPA, however, said that unless the business license requirement is incorporated into the RFP or IFP (invitation for proposals), the bidder need only possess the business license at the time of the signing of the contract, not at the time of award.
“This serves the governmental purpose of encouraging potential bidders to bid, particularly off island bidders who have not done business before in the CNMI, which assists the government in obtaining the best price for the service or goods,” added Pai.
