I totally love you Salisbury News!!!!
I as a taxpayer in Wicomico county am tired of most of the local school systems specifying roof systems that are using proprietary materials that only that manufactures produces. The selling point to the school boards are as follows.
They will provide all the specifications for the projects. They will do allow the roof surveys. They dangle out to them a 30 year warranty. But if you look at the warranty it is nothing more than a five year renewable warranty. If they don't call them for the inspection the warranty is void. It is a great deal for the manufactures to sell more materials due when they come and do the inspections the owner is responsible for the cost of the materials and the repairs.
The schools are being charged 300 to 400 percent more than other manufactures top of the line materials. What a deal for the schools!!!! This is a perfect example of waste by county employees making the wrong decisions. I guess it's due to they have someone else do there jobs for them. The manufacture has been known to change the materials specified to another cheaper material after the bid has been awarded. They have complete control of the materials that are being installed.
The school systems that use these manufactures
Wicomico
Worcester
Seaford
Salisbury U
Others Town of Ocean City
The two manufactures are Tremco and Garland
You can do google searches about both companies
You can go to DOJ viruses Tremco lawsuit
This is nothing new. At least half the time there is a municipal bid, the deck is stacked in favor of a preferred vendor. I see it all the time.
ReplyDeleteIf the bid asks for more than "A roof to cover xxx square feet for building yyy" or something really simple, you know this is going on. Sure, there are going to be variances in what is proposed, and the cheaper solution might not be the best solution, but at least there's a chance to evaluate the proposals and make your selection. But when proposals vary, people have to make judgement calls. That puts your butt on the line to make a good purchasing decision, requires thoughtful contemplation and debate, and it means that you have to learn about what you are buying to make a good evaluation. I feel like buyers are just way too lazy, overburdened, friendly with a vendor for one reason or another, or stressed out to make a purchase this way.
The key to finding out who the bid is designed for is to look for the unique value proposition of the product and finding the manufacturer who offers it. Then you can see what product they want and who they want to buy from.
I remember the telephone system for the Cambridge emergency services building was pretty much a cut/paste out of a certain manufacturer's manual. And I think it might have also required a handset with a specific number of buttons that was provided by that one vendor, but that was some years back. It was obvious that they wanted to buy one system from one company. Enough people complained that they rebid it. But you can guess which system and vendor was picked.
I do appreciate being able to sell to government agencies and know that this cuts both ways. But overall I'd much prefer that if a specific product is desired, that the purchasing agency ensure that there are enough local vendors available to sell and/or support that product and the RFP be honest and specify what they are looking for. There are tons of products that are only supplied by one company, and that doesn't provide for any opportunity for a fair and honest bid.
If you beat me on price or features, fair enough. Congratulations on your win. Treat your family with a little celebration, invest a little back in to your community, and breathe a little easier knowing that your business is doing well.
Rigged bids, though, are horrible. Don't blow sunshine up my a** and try to pretend like everybody has a fair shot. It's disrespectful to all the people who waste their time and money taking a shot at it. And it's disrespectful to your taxpayers, who are lead to believe that their money is being spent in a responsible manner.