Should Shreveport Administration Lift the Recycling Surety Bond?
The current Shreveport Administration just continues to mis-step. Last year the city awarded the contract for the city's recycling to C. Edwards Concepts, a company that has no previous waste management experience. In addition to no waste-management experience, the company has no equipment or personnel to fulfill this contract. The recycling contract bid is for almost $2 million dollars per year over a 5 year period.
Now the Shreveport City Council is set to vote on an amendment to the contract that would lift the surety bond required by the contract to guarantee that the work will be done. From the website suretybonds.com:
A surety bond is defined as a three-party agreement that legally binds together a principal who needs the bond, an obligee who requires the bond and a surety company that sells the bond. The bond guarantees the principal will act in accordance with certain laws. If the principal fails to perform in this manner, the bond will cover resulting damages or losses.
So the city of Shreveport is awarding a nearly $10 million dollar contract to a company with no experience, no personnel, and no equipment and telling them they don't have to provide a guarantee that city of Shreveport tax payers are covered by, at a minimum, a surety bond. City officials stated that the surety bond isn't needed because protections are in place for payment after services are performed, and that the company, C. Edwards Concepts can't afford the surety bond.
This raises so many questions. First, how did this company get the contract to begin with? If it is because, as we've been told, no other companies bid, then why didn't we re-start the bid process to get a qualified company? How does this administration justify not protecting $10M of Shreveport taxpayers money? If C. Edwards Concepts can't afford the surety bond, is this the company we want to do business with? This, like so many decisions this administration makes, stinks like three day old fish.