Two state contracts go to sole bidders

Gov. Sonny Perdue has decided to award an $873 million computer services contract to a sole bidder, even though he scrapped a similar single-bid deal he inherited when he took office in 2003.

The Georgia Technology Authority has declared it intends to award the massive contract within a week or so to IBM. The contract, put out to bid in December, initially had three companies seeking the deal. But EDS and Northrop Grumman dropped out.

The authority also posted its intention to award a telecommunications contract for $346 million to another sole bidder, AT&T. The contracts will handle computers and telecommunications for 13 state agencies and last five to seven years. Technology Authority spokesman Michael Clark said 92 state employees will lose their jobs. Other state tech workers will be offered jobs with IBM or subcontractors.

The contracts have been controversial because Perdue, a Republican, ended a large contract for similar computer-telecommunications outsourcing because it had only one bidder. That contract had been proposed by Perdue’s predecessor, Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat. A revamped bidding process, headed by Perdue’s technology director, Patrick Moore, and aided by consulting company TPI, was supposed to avoid that lack of competition. TPI had been paid $3.6 million as of last month.

Companies initially expressed interest in the contracts, but then dropped out. By last month, only IBM and AT&T were bidding, one on each contract.

Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said the situation is different than Barnes’ plan because the latest proposals were divided into two contracts. He also said the Perdue administration has involved state agencies more in the process of deciding what’s needed.

“There are a lot of differences between what they were doing and what we are doing,” he said. “That [the Barnes plan] was really a solution looking for a problem. At the end of the day, the whole point to this is to increase the level of services and hopefully do it cheaper.”

Another controversy concerning the IBM contract has been problems recently brought to light by the Dallas Morning News about IBM’s computer outsourcing contract in Texas. In October, the newspaper reported that a state computer server, run by IBM, malfunctioned earlier this year and destroyed roughly eight months of documents by the Texas attorney general. The newspaper reported that numerous state agencies complained of problems with IBM.

Brantley said the Perdue administration is aware of the situation with IBM in Texas and is including performance benchmarks to make sure the company gives the state what it’s paying for. “We’re not casting a blind eye to it,” Brantley said.

IBM spokesman John Buscemi said the company is working with Texas to resolve the problem.