Changes in Mississippi bidding laws has led to some confusion, and recently the Columbia Board of Aldermen learned more about the process.
The Board discussed the process last month with Finley Ward and Ted Fleming of Central Bidding, a vendor that handles Marion County’s online reverse auctions.
“Just because the process is changing doesn’t mean you don’t have control of it,” Fleming said. “We work with a number of agencies already here in Mississippi. We’ve worked with about 400 different agencies so far, about 100 of them here in Mississippi. We work with agencies of all sizes. Some post more than 1,000 bids per year and some don’t post more than one project every two to three years.”
Both the city and Central Bidding had concerns about local vendors and want to keep them involved. The state’s reasoning for the requirements of the online auctions are a simple premise: more bidders for better pricing and cost savings.
“We train your staff, and we work with your local bidders,” Fleming said. “Many agencies we work with have actually had us come in and work with their vendors and train them so that they’re not using the live process as the first time they’ve done it.”
In the case of Ward and Fleming’s firm, the costs associated with the online auctions are not passed on to the city. The firm makes its money in the downloading of the documents. The process is used for materials and supply bids, not for construction.
Fleming told the Board that all the city needed to do was provide the specifications for the item in the bid and they would do the rest.
“We take ownership of everything,” he said. “You can use RFPs that are already on our site and add your specs. You determine what is in the specs. We’ll try to show you what is successful and what is not. What we have to help you is 48,000 procurements on our site.”
Alderman-at-large Edward Hough sought an explanation of the process for the auctions.
“It’s like eBay backwards, isn’t it?” he asked.
Fleming said there are some items that are not good candidates for online reverse auctions.
“I’ve told agencies no on some items,” he said. “I was with an agency not too long ago and they said, ‘How would you do this?’ and I told them there was no way I’d do it. They weren’t going to get enough vendors. It was a continuing education trailer for a junior college. There might be two builders in the whole country that could build this truck. You can’t reverse auction that.”
City Attorney Lawrence Hahn said in cases like the one mentioned the city could obtain a waiver.
“You can get a waiver if an item or project doesn’t fit a reverse auction model,” he said. “This truck we’re talking about, we may give Mr. Fleming our specs and he’ll say, ‘There aren’t but two companies that have this, you don’t need the reverse auction.’ If he said that, we’d get a waiver and do it the old-fashioned way. We would actually propose sealed bids.”
Ward said he would send a contract to Hahn, who would look it over and bring it to a future meeting.
