This is, amazingly enough, not a spam post.
The title of this post is, in fact, a word for word quote from a recent request for proposals posted by the state of Vermont.
What are they looking for? Well, let’s look at the RFP itself:
The Office of Purchasing & Contracting is seeking to establish purchasing agreements with one or more companies that can provide and manage eBay and Specialty on-line site sales.
The state expects to periodically have surplus item(s) available for sale via eBay or Specialty on-line listing site in an effort to realize the best possible return for each item(s).
Yes. That’s right. The state wants to hire an outside contractor whose sole job it is to list things on eBay.
Clearly, a job too specialized and sophisticated to hire a state employee for it.
And how much is the state willing to pay to avoid having an actual employee handle this?
The estimated annual value of this contract is $50,000.00. The annual value and quantities are estimated only based on prior usage; actual purchases may be higher or lower depending on the state’s needs.
Odd sidenote: for whatever reason, this is a sealed bid, issued on the day of a Holiday weekend, distributed at 2:30 am. Something about that seems a little… odd… to me.
Boy, does this sound like a classic Internet scam: “You can earn up to $50,000 working out of your home for the state of Vermont! Hi, I’m Jim Douglas, Governor of Vermont, offering you the opportunity of a lifetime to earn big money by selling surplus merchandise on EBay!”
What next? Teaching unemployed Vermonters to send spam e-mails? Scraping the gold off the State House and selling it to Cash4Gold.com?
not a money saving strategy. Or, to be more accurate, a lie motivated by the demands of private industry. This is just one more example.
We already have a state surplus sales unit in the General Services department. They have a place down on Rt. 2 next to the flea market in Waterbury. The folks there seem to have some time on their hands. But that wouldn’t provide cash for FOJ (Friends of Jim).
Actually, I recommend a visit to the state surplus store for those in need of office furniture or computer peripherals. Occasionally they have really weird lab equipment and things I just can’t identify. They also sell cheap pocket knives – originally collected from forgetful air travelers, bought from TSA by the pound, and sold for a couple of bucks.
This is disgusting. Sending a bid out to a private contractor at vastly inflated prices that the taxpayer will have to pay so that Douglas can knock off yet more workers and axe more benefits. This is disgusting. This has got to get to the mainstream media. I wonder how much these contractors paid Douglas for this contract.
“Otherwise, and this happens frequently, the taxpayers are fleeced by contractor overcharges or contractor under-performance, or both. This type of contract presents a high risk of the latter.”
Thank you, sláinte cl. This is just what I was getting at in my opinion, as opposed to researched facts, about the proposal of the state farming out the ebay stuff to a private contractor. The potential for a private contractor to fleece the taxpayer for very little in return could be exceedingly difficult for the said contractor to resist, especially if there was little oversight. Look what happens at the federal level. How much have private contractors fleeced from us there?
As for salaries, if the state assigned someone or several to this task already on the state payroll they should not have to shovel out any additional salary/overtime, benefits beyond what they were already paying. Also, the state taxpayer would have to pay the salaries and benefits, assuming the workers got any, of the people working for the said contractor.
My opinion of the matter is that it is a more a political move by a few within the state government based on ideology and, perhaps, as a way to reward a political benefactor or two. I hope I am wrong, but from what I’ve read about it here that is what it smells like to me so far.