JEA notified the company it had declared the winning bidder for its GPS project that it cancelled the offer because the company had been partially acquired by another company that had also bid on the project.
JEA Chief Purchasing Officer John McCarthy notified SkyGuard, headquartered in Flowood, Miss., that it had been chosen for the GPS implementation project (Invitation for Bid No. 093-11) after a demonstration and a $1,419,090 base bid.
McCarthy’s letter was dated Sept. 26. Two days later, high bidder, Wireless Matrix, which bid $2,054,320, announced that it acquired partial assets of SkyGuard.
“After consulting with legal counsel, JEA has determined SkyGuard is no longer capable of performing JEA’s GPS services since it no longer owns the solution that was submitted in the SkyGuard bid,” stated McCarthy in a letter dated Oct. 12. “Accordingly, JEA is no longer planning on moving forward with an award to SkyGuard, and it is our intention to reject SkyGuard’s bid,” he said.
Although Wireless Matrix acquired the technology and also submitted a bid on the project, JEA declared the company ineligible.
“JEA understands Wireless Matrix has offered to fulfill SkyGuard’s contractual obligations that would have resulted from a contract award to SkyGuard for JEA’s GPS services,” stated McCarthy in the letter.
“JEA has determined this is not a feasible solution since Wireless Matrix did not bid the SkyGuard solution. This is further complicated by the fact that Wireless Matrix also submitted a proposal for JEA’s GPS implementation and JEA policy precludes the evaluation of multiple bids by one entity.”
Also, before the decision on SkyGuard, a protest was filed against the awarding of the contract to SkyGuard by Georgia-based Utility Associates, which also submitted a bid on the project.
JEA’s protest process involves the chief purchasing officer’s informal review and written determination. McCarthy’s decision supported awarding the contract to SkyGuard.
Utility Associates continued its protest by requesting that JEA’s Procurement Appeals Board review McCarthy’s decision on the protest. The board is scheduled to meet Oct. 26.
Through the GPS Implementation project, JEA seeks to develop a system that will help it obtain better data on vehicle usage, conditions and location; manage resources and assign work; and achieve lower costs of operations.
JEA has a fleet of about 1,200 vehicles and 370 pieces of non-motorized equipment, which serves more than 360,000 customers in Duval and parts of three other counties.
The system would also be able to record the start and end of shifts, grouped vehicles, service center and depot revisits, excessive ignition time, driving time, mileage, speed and GPS signal loss.
JEA also wants it to help with employee safety. System requirements include providing actual vehicle operation information.
The system will need to communicate with the vehicle computer to retrieve real-time vehicle operation information and maintenance codes.
JEA has requested that the system be able to provide a safety alert in the event that emergency services are required and if a fleet unit is involved with a collision.
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