I used to work for the Danbury News-Times hmhm years ago which makes me proud they have published an example of a very common practice. Aa Danbury contractor, Mark IV, bid on a sewer project in Trumbull and came in way under all the other bids. Surprise, because “other companies said they could install pipes for $36 or $46 a foot, Mark IV said it could do it for $1. When the others said trench dams would cost up to $2,500 each, Mark IV said it only needed 1 cent.” Surpise! Mark IV ran into some cost overruns that brought the project to “almost as much as the highest bidder”.
http://m.newstimes.com/danbury/pm_9223/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=zmiLFm3q
The government employee had to award the contract to the lowest bidder, and there are mechanisms in place for cost over-runs. So the government employee doesn’t have to do his job, just award the job to the lowest bidder. And the lowest bidder can jack up the price later.
So why do I write about this? Because the poor tax payer does not seem to know or care that we can do something about our government cheating us. Who do we go to? The government who is causing the problem? The contractor who is winning the game? The newspaper? Who can make the laws make sense?
I worked for 16 years with the Connecticut Department of Adminstrative Services (DAS) and the things I saw were not really criminal, but political. The laws are stupid, like these municipal buyers are required by law to take the lowest bid, even when the bid is ridiculously low and will eventually cost taxpayers more money later.
If government workers don’t take the lowest bid for good reason they are doing a good job. But how can they know? How can anyone stand up against a stupid law? So how can we take care of the problem?
I am not going to suggest new laws. We have enough laws. We can find something on the books that blames both the government employee and the contractor when they are unable to make a contract work.
But we can’t find anything against making and enforcing stupid laws. That is where we should be able to start.
As it is not it doesn’t matter who is responsible. Who cares? The taxpayer is going to pay for it no matter what.
Copyright 2012 Kent Johnson
