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Monday, February 27, 2006

Ind. Gov't. - Still more on: Lake County printing contracts questioned

The first ILB entry was on Dec. 4, 2005, when a story in the Gary Post-Tribune reported that bidders for Gary printing contracts had been bidding for years for "on work they will never be asked to perform." More:

The three companies that applied to the County Board of Commissioners for the 2006 contracts bid on at least two work orders to print forms that have not been used in years.

The discovery has spurred the Commissioner’s Office to undertake a wholesale audit of dozens of 2006 county bids, to look for other oversights that could give an unfair advantage to a firm that knows it will not be asked to fill a particular order.

The outdated bid sheets for 2006 appear to have benefited Haywood Printing Inc., a Lafayette company that has had the county printing contract for the past several years.

Haywood’s bids on two orders to print three-ply paper offense reports for the Lake County Sheriff’s Department totaled $140.

The next lowest bidder, A-1 Union Graphics Inc. of Hammond, bid $2,240, 16 times higher than Haywood’s quote.

The third bidder, P & H Printing Etc. of Whiting, gave a quote of $4,480 to the county for the work.

The result was that the company that already had the contract knew what items were not required and so could bid low on them.

An entry from Dec. 6, 2005 included this quote from the Post-Tribune:

Lake County department heads will be required to certify all their 2006 contract requests are up to date, in order to prevent bidders from defrauding the county.

After learning bidders for 2006 county printing contracts responded to out-of-date bid forms, County Commissioners attorney John Dull on Monday sent a letter to county departments ordering them to verify their hundreds of bid requests.

A story in the Jan. 9, 2006 Post-Tribune, quoted here in the ILB, reported:
After the Post-Tribune reported in early December that two arrest reports included in the printing specifications for the Sheriff’s Department had not been used in years, the commissioners pledged not to approve any printing contracts until completing an internal audit of the printing requests for all 25 Lake County departments. * * *

Based on the results of the commissioners’ audit, the county has been ordering reams of unneeded paper.

The Lake County Clerk’s Office, for instance, reported to the county Purchasing Department that 15 of the 28 paper forms on the 2006 bid sheet are obsolete.

So how did it end up? Yesterday the Post-Tribune reported [link no longer available]:
CROWN POINT — Three local printing firms have lost out to a Lafayette-based company in the bidding for lucrative annual Lake County government printing contracts, though all three had the low bids for the work.

The three lost because they all neglected to sign a single-page contract.

After getting a second chance to submit proposals amid revelations that the 2006 printing bids were rife with errors that likely gave Haywood Printing Co. of Lafayette an unfair advantage, the three Lake County companies seemed shoo-ins to get the contracts to provide paper products to county offices.

When the proposals were opened at the February Board of Commissioners meeting, A-1 Union Graphics of Hammond had the inside track on three contracts, with a bid of $77,822.

And P & H Printing of Whiting came in low on one printing class, worth $37,395.

Sheffield Press of Hammond bid lower than Haywood for two classes of work totalling $86,590, but came in higher than A-1 or P & H for the contracts.

Haywood, which had won most Lake County printing contracts it bid for during the past several years, seemed destined to be stuck with a lone $18,425 job.

As the final flourish of the time-consuming bidding pro-cess, representatives of all firms vying for Lake County government work must sign a contract binding them to complete the work if their bid is chosen.

None of the Lake County companies signed on the dotted line, rendering their bids null and void.

Haywood, as the only firm to follow the bidding instructions, will therefore most likely receive all the work, totalling $170,113.

The commissioners will make their final decision on the bids at their March meeting.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 27, 2006 08:44 AM
Posted to Indiana Government