mrpeeng t1_j7l5gqg wrote on February 7, 2023 at 4:24 PM

Reply to comment by Jeff3412 in MTA spent twice as much on Second Ave subway consultants as it did on its construction by NYY657545

My old company did this for various gov. inspection jobs. They'd undercut the bids just to win them for the cash flow to pay for other higher paying jobs. Gov. payment was always reliable so that kept the business running when it was slow. When they lost a job to some one else due to a lower bid, they'd have them audited to see how it was possible and fight it. There are a bunch of stupid rules that inflate the bids though like some jobs had requirement where you HAVE to use a company that is women owned for 20% of your supplies. You find them and they ALL charge 200% the normal rate of something like a ream of paper.

atyppo t1_j7lc1fd wrote on February 7, 2023 at 5:07 PM

Yep. It's insane. If the government is literally required to discriminate 30% of the time (NYS standard) for MWBE owned businesses, then I have no hope for our legislators, since they clearly lack any sort of self-awareness. Shocking news: women aren't typically particularly interested in running tunneling companies, for example (yes, I'm aware this is a very simplified example). The ones that are can now charge whatever they want since they have little to no competition, yet the state is obliged to contract them.