Chatham-Kent councillor Anthony Ceccacci wants the municipality to take a longer look at the municipality’s proposed purchase of washers and dryers for Riverview Gardens.
Usually sole source contracts, tender bids with only one bidder, get rubber-stamped by Chatham-Kent council. Ceccacci wanted council to look at three sole source bids for items for Riverview Gardens long-term care home.
While council decided not to reopen two of the bids for competitive bidding due to specialized equipment, council agreed with Ceccacci’s motion to have administration undertake a competitive bidding process on the purchase of washers and dryers that had a single bid of $123,000.
Ceccacci said he didn’t want to question staff’s diligence or cause operational delays, but with all three bids totaling almost $750,000, he wanted administration to make sure that the bids were within the market range.
“I want to make sure that we are being as diligent as possible and ensuring the taxpayer’s money to the best of our ability,” Ceccacci said.