The selection committee reviewing proposals from the five firms competing for the six-figure contract to administer the state’s $1.6 billion flood recovery program has made its recommendation to the Division of Administration, and an announcement could come later today.
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says the state is wrapping up the selection process and hopes to announce the new contractor by the end of the day.
“If not, first thing tomorrow,” he says, declining to provide additional details.
The state’s self-imposed deadline to announce the winning proposal is 3 p.m. Thursday, through it could have extended the deadline if necessary.
The state has been under fire to speed up the procurement process for the Restore Louisiana contract. Political critics of Gov. John Bel Edwards have accused his administration of dragging its feet. While many of those charges have been unfounded, federal flood recovery dollars became available to Louisiana this week, so it’s important for the state to get a contractor in place immediately in order to begin administering the homeowner rebuilding program.
Late last month, the state threw out the first round of procurement and decided to restart the contract solicitation process amid controversy over licensing requirements and concerns about price. The five proposals during the first round of procurement ranged in price from an estimated $250 million to some $350 million.
In its new round of procurement, the state changed the scoring process to lower the price estimates of the proposals.
Firms competing for the contract are IEM, PDRM, SLSCO, HGI and CB&I. Those are the same five firms that submitted proposals the first time around, during which IEM was selected as the winning proposal.
—Stephanie Riegel
