Findings Of Fact On April 24, 1992, the Respondent issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) pertaining to the provision of housekeeping services at South Florida State Hospital. Petitioner and Intervenor submitted responses to the RFP. After all responses were received, Respondent convened an evaluation committee to evaluate the responses. The evaluation committee recommended that Intervenor be awarded the contract. Petitioner's response was ranked by the evaluation committee as the second best response. Following the publication of the results of the evaluation committee, Petitioner filed a bid protest and asserted several grounds in support of its protest. At the formal hearing, the Petitioner abandoned all grounds except for the assertion that Intervenor had failed to disclose as a part of its financial information the existence of a tax lien. Petitioner asserted that the failure to disclose the tax lien should result in either the contract being awarded to it or the return of the matter to the evaluation committee for reevaluation. A Notice of Tax Lien was filed by the Florida Department of Labor and Employment Security for unpaid unemployment compensation taxes and was in the amount of $1,900.00. Intervenor paid the amounts secured by the said lien on May 12, 1992, which was before the responses were due to the RFP on June 5, 1992. The RFP requires certain financial information of the bidders, but it does not require bidders to list tax liens that may have been filed against it. There is no evidence that Intervenor failed to provide the financial information required by the RFP or that the information was inaccurate or incomplete. Petitioner failed to establish that the existence of this tax lien would have had any bearing on the evaluation of the responses. There was no evidence that Intervenor gained an unfair advantage over Petitioner or any other bidder by failing to disclose this tax lien in its response to the RFP. There was no evidence that Intervenor acted in bad faith or that it tried to misrepresent its financial condition.
Recommendation Based upon the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED that a Final Order be entered which dismisses Petitioner's bid protest. DONE AND ORDERED this 8th day of October, 1992, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. CLAUDE B. ARRINGTON Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1550 (904) 488-9675 Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 8th day of October, 1992. APPENDIX TO THE RECOMMENDED ORDER IN CASE NO. 92-4310BID The Petitioner did not file a post-hearing submittal. The proposed findings of fact submitted on behalf of the Respondent are adopted in material part by the Recommended Order. The following rulings are made on the proposed findings of fact submitted on behalf of the Intervenor. The proposed findings of fact in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 30 are adopted in material part by the Recommended Order. The proposed findings of fact in paragraphs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 31 are rejected as being subordinate to the findings made. The proposed findings of fact in paragraph 13 are rejected as being unsubstantiated by the evidence. The testimony of Ms. Diaz as to whether the amount of the tax lien was included in this figure was equivocal. The proposed findings of fact in paragraph 18 are rejected as being unnecessary to the conclusions reached. When the Department of Labor and Employment Security satisfied the lien of record is not relevant to the issues presented by this matter. The proposed findings of fact in paragraph 24 are rejected as being unnecessary to the findings made. COPIES FURNISHED: Gerry Gordon, Esquire 1413 South Howard Avenue Suite 202 Tampa, Florida 33606 Colleen A. Donahue, Esquire Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services District 10 Legal Office Room 513 201 West Broward Boulevard Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301-1885 Stephen G. Murty, Esquire Jay R. Tome, Esquire Murty and Tome, P.A. 777 Brickell Avenue Miami, Florida 33131 R. S. Power, Clerk Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services 1323 Winewood Boulevard Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0700
