October 30, 2017 •
Court Gives City Wide Berth in Letting Non-Compliant Offerors Revise Forms
In United Healthcare Services, Inc. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, United Healthcare Services, Inc. (United) was not awarded the city of Baltimore’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for medical administration services despite being fully compliant with listed Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) and Women Business Enterprises (WBE) goals.
The companies awarded the contract did not comply with the requested MBE and WBE set at 11 percent and 4 percent respectively. After United complained, the city allowed the selected offerors to revise their MBE and WBE forms.
United filed suit against the city alleging violations of Baltimore’s procurement laws. The court found the city “is generally given a wide berth in making its decisions,” and United cannot point to a provision in the City Code the city clearly violated.
Additionally, the City Code only requires bidders make a “good faith effort” to be in compliance with the RFP and “the City has more expertise interpreting the City Code, and its own rules, than the Court.”
In turn, United failed to establish it would be likely to succeed on the merits.
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