(12-25-2023, 11:01 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Accenture and Thales had refused to respond to RFPs, they would never have been selected to develop Presto. But now that Metrolinx has Presto, they will refuse to respond to RFPs.
Sole-sourcing government procurement contracts, whatever could possibly go wrong with that?
It's totally normal for governments to not bid on each other's projects. The region pays the cities to clear snow from its roads, it doesn't make the cities go through a bidding process against private contractors. When the region decided to purchase LRVs from Metrolinx, it didn't make them bid. I can easily list a dozen other examples.
Responding to a payment system RFP would easily be a full time job for months for 3 FTEs. Metrolinx isn't staffed for that, and it would be silly to do so. Presto isn't a commercial offering, it's a government service.
The region has no problem waiving the RFP process when working with governments (including with Metrolinx for the LRV purchase). For Presto it was nothing but a convenient excuse they could give the public.