License contracts awarded to Springfield firm will be rebid

Management contracts for 10 motor vehicle and license offices are going out for re-bid due to incomplete bid information, according to the Missouri Department of Revenue.

DOR said Dec. 10 that officials have discovered Springfield nonprofit Alternative Opportunities Inc. did not follow proper procedure in the 10 bids that were awarded to AO earlier this year. AO was approved to manage offices in Ava, Camdenton, Creve Coeur, Joplin, Nevada, Olivette, Poplar Bluff, Republic, and two in Springfield.

Bidders were told they could not use subcontractors to provide main services in the office; the contract manager proposed by AO, although associated with the organization for many years, was being paid by Tucson, Ariz.-based WD Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Providence Service Corp.

Reggie McElhannon, director of public information for AO, said the issue came from listing CFO Tom Goss as the contract manager, even though his salary is actually paid by WD Management.

The state Office of Administration said it would issue new requests for proposals by the end of December and give potential bidders five weeks to respond. The offices in question, which were awarded between April and September, will remain under current management during the process.

"The two departments were made aware of the contract manager's status after the bids had been awarded," DOR Director Alana M. Barragán-Scott said in a news release. "After studying the issue, we determined that re-bidding the offices was the right thing to do."

McElhannon said that AO will rebid for the license offices and has listed a different employee as office manager on bids for subsequent offices. He added that AO is confident that the state is satisfied with the organization's level of service and is not overly concerned about the mistake.

"The fact that the department has asked us to remain on the job with these offices during this transition time of rebidding is telling," he said. "With that in mind, we're more than happy to rebid on each of these and provide all the information we can so that there's not a question."

As of Dec. 10, 154 of the state's 183 license offices have been awarded under the competitive bidding system, with 65 going to new agents and 89 to incumbent agents or groups associated with the incumbents.

AO, which operates a corporate office at 1111 S. Glenstone Ave., Ste. 2-100, provides social services to the disabled, unemployed, foster youth and those struggling with substance abuse. The company employs 2,000 statewide and recorded fiscal 2008 revenues of $56.6 million, according to past Springfield Business Journal coverage.[[In-content Ad]]