UNCHECKED AMATEURISM

Adamning report from the city auditor on how Edmonton awards and buys work it needs done from companies is both disconcerting and enlightening. The sweeping review of the city’s tendering system presented to council Monday by David Wiun revealed it was rife with unprofessional practices.

The revelations follow a spotty record when it comes to completing projects properly and on time, from the Walterdale and 102 Avenue bridges to the Metro LRT line.

In a city the size of Edmonton, which signs 1,700 contracts a year for construction and professional services worth $1 billion, there are bound to be mistakes. But Wiun found widespread amateurism in the procurement process.

On one unnamed $142-million construction project, city officials cancelled the first request for bids because it was so ridden with errors. On the second attempt, they changed the drawings and specifications seven times during the bidding process. Confused contractors responded with hundreds of questions, resulting in more changes and five deadline extensions.

The auditor painted that failure as an example of haste making waste, citing rushed officials.

Less justifiable when public money, fairness and the city’s reputation are at stake are suggestions of cronyism in awarding contracts.

Auditors found one case where an employee with a conflict of interest was allowed to evaluate bids and another where someone who showed bias toward a bidder continued working on the project. It strains belief that the auditor, among his eight recommendations, must spell out a prohibition on potential favouritism.

Wiun also found examples of bad management of successful bidders. In one case, the winner of a $300,000 contract demanded a 32-per-cent higher fee, which the city granted without negotiation.

While Edmonton taxpayers are right to shake their heads at the bungling of bids, companies, too, should be outraged. Firms bidding on a project are not typically paid and a complex bid may represent months of work and hundreds of pages of technical documents.

Edmontonians are not well-served if companies are discouraged from bidding on future contracts because of muddled specifications or suspicions of unfairness; the fewer the bids, the less chance the city finds the best contractor and value for the job. Pulling back the curtain and allowing more transparency on the bidding process may help restore confidence in the city’s procurement system.

The question is, how did these problems continue unchecked for so long?