Editorial: Reckless bid-ness

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has a double standard. When running against then-Gov. Don Siegelman in 2002, Riley turned his predecessor’s penchant for no-bid contracts into a political albatross. Now he has no qualms about signing a $13 million contract with a computer company without putting the services out for bid.

That’s wrong. But to add insult to injury, the governor’s statement that he intended to sign the contract came a day after the state’s purchasing director issued a directive to all state agencies saying that no purchasing request would be processed unless the expenditure had been put up for competitive bid.

The bid process is a two-edged blade. On one hand, it’s good stewardship of public funds in that it is designed to get the best price on goods and services for the people’s money.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Often bid specifications are written specifically to narrow the scope to a particular product or vendor.

However, entering into a multimillion-dollar contract like the one Riley is bent on signing with Paragon Source LLC is astonishingly reckless, as no competing company was given an opportunity to show what it may be able to do, perhaps at a far lower rate.