The procurement process to construct an eastern substation for the Guam Police Department in Talo’fo’fo' is at a standstill. 

TheGuam Housing Urban Renewal Authority previously announced its intent to award the project to IAN Corporation during a board meeting back in September, with the general contracting company’s bid amount at over $4 million.  

IAN Corporation was among three other companies vying for the project: Mega United Corp., Art Construction, and Surface Solutions. Those last three ultimately were deemed and notified they were unsuccessful bidders. 

However, Surface Solutions submitted a letter of protest on the last day of the 14-day protest period, one that GHURA Executive Director Liz Napoli says was found to have merit. 

“In conducting a comprehensive review of the procurement process for this award, GHURA has determined that there is merit to the protest," she said. "A stay of procurement was issued until a final resolution to the bid protest is made. So, the prudent thing to do is rescind this award and restart the bid.” 

However, Napoli admitted she misspoke by saying GHURA will rescind the award– establishing GHURA is still in the process of deciding how to proceed now that Surface Solution’s protest is with merit. 

It was said during the housing authority's board meeting, Surface Solution is protesting information GHURA indicated as non-responsive to the bid.

“My apologies. I’m not sure if the correct terminology is 'rescind' or whatever, but we can’t go through with the intent to award that you did approve at this point because there is question and a protest was made," Napoli said. "And so, I guess we have to make sure that we’re really reviewing every single step of the procurement process before we can proceed.” 

Napoli added because of the importance of the project, she hopes to get past the protest and move on in the procurement process. 

Meanwhile, in an abundance of caution, Napoli also deemed it necessary to halt the award for the renovation and upgrade of the basketball court in Toto Gardens. 

She notes no contracts have been signed for either of these awards, and projects have not started, adding new bids will go out for both projects.