US. In a dramatic development, Adam Smith, Chief Procurement Officer for the City of Atlanta, announced on Friday that he will reissue the request for proposals (RFP) for the concessions procurement process underway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for 126 food & beverage locations and 24 retail locations.
The decision has huge repercussions and is likely to cause considerable controversy. Restarting the process could delay the opening of the new international terminal from the target date of 15 April 2012, the City’s Chief Operating Officer, Peter Aman told local newspaper Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The RFP for the concessions at Hartsfield-Jackson is one of the largest in North American airport history. Of the respondents to the airport concessions RFP, 36% failed to properly submit the Georgia Security Immigration Compliance Act form, the City said.
But that response is unlikely to satisfy many people, especially those who submitted compliant bids. One informed source wrote to The Moodie Report (see Readers’ Forum below) and said: “41 of 91 Proposals submitted were missing required documents – therefore 50 respondents submitted compliant proposals – in the history of the RFP process in the USA no city has ever withdrawn a RFP for this reason – those who did not comply were disqualified and the ones who were compliant were scored per the RFP process.”
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How Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the story |
The failure to complete the state-mandated form affected respondents across all RFP categories: large food & beverage, small food & beverage, and retail packages. Under state law, a proposal cannot be considered or further evaluated unless the E-Verify form is accurately completed and submitted in the response.
“To ensure a competitive process, compliance with state law and fair treatment of all respondents, I have concluded that the course of action in the best interest of the City is to cancel the RFP process and start again,” Smith said.
“I am committed to making sure that the city’s procurement process and the resulting contracts provide best-in-class levels of service and value to taxpayers while meeting the highest ethical standards.”
The Code of the City of Atlanta vests the Chief Procurement Officer solely with the rights, duties and powers to cancel a procurement process when such action is deemed to be in the best interest of the City.
Smith based his decision on the fact that more than a third of the respondents were disqualified in the Department of Procurement’s initial review of the proposals because of problems with the state E-Verify form. As a result, the field of respondents across all categories was “dramatically reduced”, he said, “significantly limiting competition”.
The goal of the procurement is to bring in high-quality concessionaires to the airport and maximise revenue, ensuring the airport’s long-term profitability, Smith commented.
But restarting the process now could delay the opening of the international terminal from the target date of April 15, Aman told Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff. He and other city officials said they still expect to open in the spring.
The terminal may open with only some of its concessions completed, Aman told the newspaper. “We’re not happy to be in this situation,” he said. Concessions are “a core element of what it means to have a pre-eminent airport”.
“We felt the loss of competition through disqualification was too great,” Aman said. “We’re trying to maximise the revenue over a seven or ten-year period”, the length of the concessions.
Click here to read the full interview with Peter Aman. Also see readers’ feedback below.
