The City of Lloydminster will be looking at how their public tenders are posted.
During Monday’s meeting of city council, questions on the matter arose during the discussion on awarding a contract for replacing the computer hardware used by the municipal government.
The point was brought up by Councillor Aaron Buckingham, who was disappointed to not see any local businesses listed as options for the contract.
Buckingham informed council that he had heard from business owners in Lloydminster who had been having trouble finding tenders posted by the city, and directed questions towards administration on how the process worked.
In the ensuing discussion, mayor Gerald Aalbers suggested the use of a tab on the municipal website, and Director of Strategy Todd Corrigall indicated that the Communications and Marketing Department would be examining the issue.
After the meeting, Buckingham expanded on his concerns.
“For me, I’m a shop local guy,” said Buckingham.
“I do business with those who do business with me, as a general rule, keeping that as local as humanly possible. When I see one of these RFP’s come out, there’s 11 (options) on it, and there’s not one local business on there, my immediate question was did they know, were they able to bid it?”
Buckingham said he was concerned about communications from the City on tenders not being as clear as possible, though he did acknowledge local businesses also play a role in finding bidding opportunities.
“Some of the onus has to fall on local business to look for these things, absolutely, but I just wonder if we couldn’t clean up the process,” said Buckingham.
“If we’re going to put them on our city website, for example, let people know that that is where they’re going to be. We’re going to be issuing RFP’s weekly, or whatever the case may be, and when those things go out, we know we can go to the City website and easily find them.”
More information on what administration is planning to do with the process was not available on Monday afternoon, though it is expected in the coming days. As for the technology refresh contract, council voted to award the contract to CDW Canada, at a cost of $24,396.