The Montesano School District has received a finding from the state auditor’s office in relation to its installation of turf at Jack Rottle Field during the 2015-16 school year.

According to the finding from the auditor’s office, “The District did not ensure the procurement process used by TIPS met bid requirements when selecting a contractor for the purchase and installation of the field turf.”

The district piggybacked in April 2015 on a contract awarded to Sprinturf by The Interlocal Purchasing System, Texas (TIPS) for the installation of the turf field. The total cost for purchase and installation was more than $1 million.

RCW permits agencies to make purchases using another agency’s purchasing contract as long as the process to award the bid to the lowest possible bidder is followed. This process is known as piggybacking.

According to Superintendent Dan Winter this process is not uncommon.

“In planning for our turf project the district informally contacted several companies to discuss their product and process for completing our project,” Winter said in an email. “In speaking with Sprinturf we were advised they were awarded a contract with TIPS, USA and we signed an interlocal agreement in order to use that awarded contract.”

Winter said throughout that process it was explained to the district that TIPS was “an approved agreement to use in Washington State.”

“They (TIPS) are present at many school district conferences where they are soliciting business in Washington State as an approved cooperative in Washington State,” Winter said.

While TIPS meets Texas requirements the finding states that Washington’s procurement regulations differ from those of Texas and that they were not met by the interlocal agreement entered into with TIPS.

“The district believed all Washington procurement regulations were met and did not ensure that its own bid laws were satisfied by the lead agency,” the finding states.

“The district made the decision to use TIPS because they have been used by other school districts in the state without any issues,” Winter said. “Because TIPS was a known cooperative in the state we were told by them that they were an approved cooperative for the state.”

The district decided to utilize an interlocal agreement in contracting Sprinturf to do the work on the field. Winter said they were chosen as the vendor because of the overall quality of their product and their history of successful projects.

“We looked at multiple turf companies that, like Sprinturf, manufacture their own turf as well as companies that get their turf from other companies,” Winter explained. “Because Sprinturf had already completed the bid process through TIPS, our understanding was that they met the Washington bid requirements.”

Winter said even with the finding he is confident the district “received a good value for the community’s dollar.”

The finding recommends the district follow Washington bid law to ensure goods and services are competitively procured. It also notes there should be a review of debarred contractors to ensure those under consideration are permitted to do business in Washington.

“The district is committed to following bid laws and guidelines for future projects and will also verify the vendor chosen is a contractor who is allowed to do business in the State of Washington and not on the list of debarred contractors,” the district responded.