Undocumented Clarifications Mean Undone State Award

In a dramatic saga in the highly competitive market for state Medicaid IS contracts, a North Carolina administrative judge upheld a protest of the state’s award of a $180 million contract, holding that the state cannot base its award on clarifications that the awardee made during an unrecorded, undocumented meeting, and that the state improperly relaxed RFP technical requirements only for the awardee. The judge found the procurement so flawed that the state should start all over again, ruling for protester, EDS Information Services, which was represented jointly by Crowell & Moring and Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan of North Carolina.