"My task will be, having applied appropriate evaluation criteria, to make a recommendation to the Amtrak Board as to which of the proposals that we think passes muster [and] delivers the best customer output, which is the most constructible, and how is it going to be paid for, etc,"
"And as long as that gets through the Amtrak Board, off to the White House to just make sure the White House is comfortable with the proposal we've made."
""The first part of his quote completely contradicts the second part," said Rachael Fauss, a longtime ethics watchdog with Reinvent Albany. "You can't evaluate a proposal and a vendor based on the best criteria and then also say that the White House gets to decide. ... That's not how competitive fair procurement is supposed to work. That's how bids get rigged.""
Andy Byford returned to New York to lead the redevelopment effort for Penn Station. Amtrak will issue a request for proposals and undertake a professional, apolitical selection process that leads to an Amtrak Board recommendation. Byford will evaluate proposals on customer outcomes, constructability, and financing before making that recommendation. The process requires final White House comfort with the chosen proposal, which introduces political review into procurement. Ethics watchdogs say allowing White House approval contradicts fair competitive procurement and risks rigged bids. Byford quipped about starting the bidding with a $3 billion bribes joke.
Read at Streetsblog
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