DID AN IKON EMPLOYEE FORGE A DEAD MAN's SIGNATURE ?

[Anonymous]

DID AN IKON EMPLOYEE FORGE A DEAD MAN’s SIGNATURE ?
Memphis City Schools board weighs new contract for copier servicer
The Memphis City Schools board will take up a multimillion-dollar contract tonight that if approved will give the district’s copier business to just one vendor, including a management contract to streamline and monitor the service.Supt. Kriner Cash recommends it go to IKON/Ricoh Business Solutions, which board member Dr. Jeff Warren has said will shave $3million to $5 million over three years from what the district now pays to several copier vendors."All we are doing is bringing our business practices into the 21st century," Warren said Friday. "We are acting like a large corporation, monitoring costs and trying to save as much as we can for our classrooms."The issue came before the board in June and was defeated largely because board members said it was not prudent to enter into a three-year contract when the city and county schools are in the process of merging.

The proposal also did not include prices, which board member Martavius Jones said made it impossible to see the scope of the savings. Vendors contacted for this article indicated that the business is worth in excess of $10 million.The three-year proposal before the board tonight is the same as last month, but it now includes a 60-day cancellation clause if the districts merge.The proposal awards the winning vendor the right to monitor the district’s usage and inventory its copier equipment and then sell it the equipment it needs to be more efficient.

Vendors say the proposal is flawed because the winning vendor will have inside knowledge of the district’s need."It’s a built-in conflict of interest," said Jimmy Wilson, sales representative at Konica Minolta. "They can easily say ‘These are the machines that will save you the most money.’"Konica has the current contract with the district and manages about 50 percent of its copiers, Wilson said.In a letter to Cash on July 11, Konica said the district allowed competitors to see its pricing in 2009 after Konica won the contract and the bids were posted.Konica was not awarded the contract until October 2010. Two weeks later, Wilson said, the district cancelled that contract and put out a request for proposals, which were due in mid-January.

It then issued a second identical RFP, due in mid-April.
Wilson said competitor IKON, which had higher prices when the bids were made public in 2009, was able to see Konica’s pricing strategy and changed course in the RFP process.The district says it sought proposals instead of bids "because we were sourcing primarily services, unlike in the past when we were primarily sourcing equipment," said Sybille Noble, head of district procurement.

Wilson and other vendors say no one can be sure IKON’s pricing is lower because the RFP was not made public.In Konica’s letter to Cash, director of sales Jeff Lee says it is the first time he’s been involved in an RFP "that vendors participating did not get to see the winning bid" and reminding the district that it made a mistake six years ago in copier contract that was caught when prices were posted.

Noble says "RFPs do not have to be disclosed until after a contract has been negotiated with the successful vendor.""Because of the complex nature of most services under an RFP, the issuer of an RFP is not bound by the provisions of the proposal," she wrote in an e-mail.

State law and district policy say the successful vendor does not have to be the "lowest-cost" bidder, she said.The district was stung by an IKON Office Solutions salesman in 2008 who used the forged signature of deceased school board attorney Percy Harvey on a $517,000 lease for three digital copiers.

David Ambrosia, who submitted a proposal for the current needs, told the board last month he had concerns about IKON/Ricoh."This vendor was involved in the opportunity several years ago to defraud Memphis City Schools," he said. "I wonder why you are moving forward with the same vendor."

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July 26, 2011 at 8:47 AM