Court -
Eastern Health is being sued over its handling of two tenders the plaintiff contractor had valued at almost $10 million.
Olympic Construction filed a statement of claim against the health authority in Supreme Court Aug. 13.
The suit actually makes two claims - one regarding a 2007 tender for an extension to the Caribou Pavilion and another from earlier this summer concerning a bid for a gynecology suite relocation at the Janeway.
On the pavilion claim, Olympic says its $3,003,692 bid wasn't the lowest, but it was the only one that complied with the tender and all other bidders were disqualified.
The company says Eastern Health then cancelled the tender because "there were no qualified bids that met the budget allocated for this project."
Olympic says it was advised the project would be re-tendered, and that it eventually went to another firm.
But the contractor argues Eastern Health did not alter the scope of the work in re-tendering and effectively tendered the project a second time after bids were opened.
Re-tendered without changes
By re-tendering without changing the project, the contractor says Eastern Health failed to follow the rules.
Olympic says because it made the lowest qualified bid, the authority was obliged to award it the contract.
"The defendant has acted unfairly and in bad faith in re-tendering the project and awarding the contract to another bidder," the statement of claim reads.
The second claim concerns an extension to the Janeway for a relocated gynecology suite.
Olympic says it put in the lowest bid on the work, $6,725,458.87.
The company claims three days after the tenders were opened, around June 28, it was told the bid was disqualified because the company hadn't attended a mandatory meeting.
But the plaintiff says it attended such a meeting June 22, and because it submitted the lowest qualified bid, Eastern Health was supposed to award it the contract.
In giving the work to the second lowest bidder, Olympic makes the same arguments it did on the first claim - that the health authority failed to follow the rules and, again, acted unfairly and in bad faith.
The company wants Eastern Health to pay it the fees and profits lost on both tenders, plus the cost incurred preparing the bids.
The claim includes $170,020 in special damages with respect to the pavilion contract and another $684,712 from the gynecology suite deal.
The plaintiff is asking for HST on those sums as well as the applicable interest.
Olympic Construction declined comment, saying the court document speaks for itself.
A spokeswoman for Eastern Health said the authority will file a defence to the contractor's claim.
sbartlett@thetelegram.com
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