PROVIDENCE – The pandemic forced people to figure out how to work, attend school and even host happy hours online.
But the state has, until recently, still required companies bidding on government contracts to submit massive piles of paperwork in-person, in hard copy form. Which is how Tufts Health Plan ended up losing out on more than $400 million worth of business in state Medicaid care earlier this year. The insurance company was unable to get its bid documents delivered to the Department of Administration building on time amid pre-blizzard “bread and milk” traffic, WPRI-TV CBS 12 first reported.
While it’s too late for Tufts to win a piece of that contract, the next time the health care company – or any other state contractor – wants to submit a proposal, they won’t have to compile copies at Staples or fight through traffic to hand deliver their submissions.
The R.I. Division of Purchases now has a new, online bidding system which requires companies to register and submit bids on any executive office contracts electronically. The new system known as Ocean State Procures launched Feb. 14, just two weeks after the botched Tufts’ Medicaid submission.
While close in timing, the two events are not related. The online bidding system has been in the works for more than five years, with a request for proposals to find a company to develop the software first put out in 2016, said to Laura Hart, a DOA spokeswoman.
The decision was motivated by the national trend to “modernize the solicitation and bidding process,” Hart said. Under Ocean State Procures, companies not only submit their bids electronically, but can also see an updated list of contracts awarded. Additional features to track progress on awarded contracts, review receipts and pay vendors are also “coming soon,” according to the website.
Whether the new, online system will help avoid the just-missed-the-deadline submission debacles exemplified in the Tufts Medicaid bid is unclear. Tufts declined to comment on the new option or how it might aid in future bid submissions.
And the state has not formally tracked how often, if ever, companies asked for electronic bid submission options in the past, according to Hart.
The update will bring Rhode Island into the company of the 33 other states that accept or offer electronic bids, according to a 2020 survey by the National Association of State Procurement Officials. Among them is Massachusetts, which launched its own online bid system, COMMBUYS, in 2014, according to a state government spokesperson.
Like Rhode Island’s new system, COMMBUYS covers the entire bidding and selection process, from posting of contracts, to submissions, elections and an online catalog of “master blanket purchase orders.”
Massachusetts’ online system came with a $20.3 million price tag, including planning, training and implementation, and a running annual cost of $1.3 million a year for operation and software subscriptions, a spokesperson said. How much Rhode Island has spent on Ocean State Procures is unclear. Hart said the state cannot provide a complete cost until the system is fully implemented.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
