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What’s in it for you, as a taxing body, to bother adopting a
Responsible Bidder Ordinance into your purchasing codes? We
break it out under these categories, in no particular order:
• Fairness
• Flexibility
• Protection
• Safety
• Value
This refers to fairness to the contractors involved in
the bidding process. By adopting an RBO and assuring that all
bidding contractors will follow Illinois contracting laws and bid
fairly, you are accomplishing two important goals:
| 1. |
Making sure that
the lowest bidder is the lowest bidder because that company
can do the work more efficiently or is willing to do it at
a smaller profit margin than the other bidders, NOT because
they are the one willing to cut the most corners and break
the most laws. Clearly, contractors doing work funded by
Illinois taxpayers should not be breaking Illinois laws. |
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| 2. |
Assuring that the best contractors
in the area are willing to bid on the job. If an honest contractor
feels that there will be other contractors bidding on the
work that have exhibited a high likelihood of breaking laws
and bending rules to win work in the past, they may not be
interested in bidding the job at all. This cheats taxpayers
of having the chance to hire the best, most efficient contractors
for the work. |
At first glance, an RBO may seem like it is serving
only add more restrictive covenants to your procurement
process. But in fact it gives you more flexibility. This is
the case when you do actually want to pass on the lowest bid
and move down to the number two or three bidder because the
low bidder is deemed “irresponsible� for not meeting RBO criteria.
The way many current
procurement codes read - specifically those without a clause
defining “responsible� - it can be very difficult for you as
the taxing body to ever refuse the lowest bid. An RBO makes it
easy and justifiable as long as the low bidder does not meet
one of the RBO qualifications. You then may have the flexibility to
move to the lowest responsible bidder, and you are not restricted
to having to simply accept the lowest bid regardless of the track
record of that contractor.
We’ve all heard, or experienced, horror stories of
contractors not living up to their end of the bargain - not
completing the job on time, going over budget, using faulty
materials, mistreating workers, etc. These are costly mistakes
and immoral behavior that taxpayers should not have to fund.
By hiring contractors that meet
the qualifications of a Responsible Bidder Ordinance, you are
taking steps to protect your community and the taxpayers against
these nightmares. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, and this
measure alone won’t ensure construction success, but it certainly
shuts the door on a lot of bad companies and opens it to the
good ones. Simply put, it increases your chances of success.
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Construction work is different than
the work a lot of us do. There are inherent major risks on
a construction site and workers do get hurt. This fact has
two major implications: 1) the obvious personal hardship
that an injury or death brings to a worker and his or her
family. This can include lost wages, loss of quality of life,
etc. And 2) very high contractor insurance premiums and medical
costs, which are ultimately borne by the customer.
But
there are proven effective ways to mitigate those risks - mainly
providing the workers with the knowledge necessary to maintain
a safe work site and stay safe on that site. Basically, training.
Workers who are expertly trained in their fields have a lower
rate of accidents and companies that provide safety training
carry lower insurance
premiums.
So, as a public body awarding construction projects, it
should be a priority to utilize contractors with proven safety
records and training programs - both from a health standpoint
as well as financial. An RBO helps to assure that you do so by
screening out those that don’t carry the necessary insurance
or participate in an accredited training program.
When you see a price for anything, there’s a value
associated with that price. Similarly priced items can have
vastly different values, dependent upon their quality and overall
ability to serve their purpose. This is especially true in
construction. There are many ways for different contractors
to come up with a given price for a project, but in order to
ensure you’ll get the most value from that price, you should
make sure all the RBO criteria are met.
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