Councillor questions tendering

BY BILL BRADLEY

The practice of contracting out expensive consulting services for city infrastructure projects to a single firm  is controversial.

It raised the ire of Ward 8 councillor Ted Callaghan at city council Wednesday night.

On two occasions Callaghan expressed outrage that other city engineering and design consultants were not given the chance to bid on services for the city.

Greg Clausen, general manager of Infrastructure Services for Greater Sudbury, indicated his wish to allow Dennis Consultants to be allowed to design, supervise construction and contract administration of the $18.5 million Levack Water Supply Project, at a cost of $1.4 million, without going out to tender. Clausen argued that Dennis Consultants were very familiar with the existing water supply systems currently owned by Vale Inco and Xstrata and that if there had been a request for proposals Dennis would have won anyways, based on their experience.

Callaghan disagreed.

“I do not like single source contracting out of services. I can look in the phone book and see many engineering firms. There is Hatch, Golder and Trow amongst others. Doing this can put council in trouble, especially when there is a lot of money involved,” said Callaghan.

He said the real issue is the need for government transparency and maintaining trust by the taxpayer for public expenditures made by city staff.