The News Comes from Sykes....Not the "Paper"

Only a thin, imaginary "line" separates Doyle-land from Illinois.

Less than most folks think...

Rep. Robin Vos (R-Caledonia) released a letter today written by the president of train company Alstom to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The letter provides further evidence that Governor Doyle’s no-bid contract procuring $48 million high speed train sets was crafted to favor Spanish train company, Talgo.

...The letter, written last August by Alstom president Roelof van Ark to DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi, sheds light on the Request for Information (RFI) process. DOT officials have used the fact that no one but Talgo responded to the RFI to deflect criticism that never sought bids from other companies.

Alstom says they were told that they weren’t obligated to respond to the RFI, that is was simply a way for DOT to gather information on what each company could provide and at what approximate costs. They were also told that failure to respond would in no way exclude them from the forthcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) that would open up the bidding process. A subsequent RFP was not issued.

So. Frankie The Fixer writes a letter saying "don't respond--we just want some info. You'll get an RFP."

Then, when the Company does not respond, the RFP is not issued.

Oh, there's more, alright.

...Alstom took issue with DOT’s statement that they chose Talgo because they are the only company that makes tilting high speed trains. Alstom says they also manufacture trains with tilting technology, as do many other train manufacturers.

VanArk questioned this DOT talking point in his August letter to Busalacchi, writing: “One would think that if this requirement was so significant in your decision making that the requirement would have been detailed in the Department’s Request for Information, as it would have been determined to be paramount to meet the operational criteria for the planned services in the region. This not being the case, it is surprising that such a critical omission now becomes the key criteria to motivate a sole-source procurement”.

Uh, not really. When one is bid-rigging, one doesn't play all the cards. That's the whole POINT of bid-rigging.

HT: Sykes