"Hypertechnical" Mistake Costly to Contractor

State District Judge Morvant ruled that the state properly refused to award a contract to Ratcliff Construction Co. even though it submitted the apparent low bid but failed to have one of its officials initial changes in the bid package reports The Advocate. Ratcliff's attorney says the decision to deny the bid is arbitrary because similar mistakes have been accepted in the past. Judge Morvant, however, said he was not going to base his decision on past actions of state officials. "Whether they have done it wrong 1,000 times doesn't make this one correct," Morvant said.

Posted by AJR at May 20, 2003 07:16 AM