CT Plus 'offered the best value for bus service'
ONLY CT Plus produced a bus contract bid better than the States' fallback 'belt and braces' in-house option, Environment has said.
Minister Yvonne Burford and chief officer Steve Smith explained its selection of a preferred bidder for the new £4.4m. contract, which was signed last month.
The process was criticised by unsuccessful tenderer the Green Bus Company, which questioned why it had not been kept on as reserve despite being the only other operator in contention.
'Why we didn't keep them on is because it would be putting them at undue cost and undue work and effort for highly probably no reward,' said Mr Smith.
'Having a reserve tenderer is in many respects just a lever on the preferred tenderer. When you're carrying out negotiations with a preferred tenderer, working through the contractual issues and signing the contract, the knowledge of the preferred tenderer that there is a reserve sitting in the wings focuses their attention and makes them sharpen their pencil.
'Really, in this scenario, the value for money bid clearly sat with CT Plus and the next value for money option sat with bringing the service in-house and we didn't want to make Green Bus sit in the wings and wait to see what the outcome was. That is essentially what we told them.'
