Government Bids

Those big, intimidating packages requesting bids on pest control work for a city government or school district can seem like a beast from hell for PCOs who've never grappled with one. Once you get the hang of them, though, they're not so ferocious.

The office manager walks into your office with a two-inch-thick envelope and plops it down on your desk. "From some suburb," she says. "Weighs a ton." You look at the return address. It's from a local city government. Another request for proposal.

Many smaller companies receive every request for proposal for their region of coverage. Some big companies hardly ever receive one, even when they are located in a large city. These government bids, or RFPs as they're commonly called, are not sent only to the select few who know someone in the local government office. Every company that is registered with the local, county, state or federal government, or with some other agency's purchasing office, will receive an RFP if work is required in that company's area of specialization.

GETTING LISTED. How to get on the lists? The best way to get on a bid list for any governmental entity or school district is to call the agency, talk to an employee in the purchasing department, and request placement on their RFP list for pest control, termite control, bird control, etc.

With some groups, it is only a matter of sending a company description or prospectus. With other groups, you will have to fill out multiple forms, submit certificates of insurance and bonds, your safety program, your certifications, and other desired information. There is no standard way to get on these lists, other than calling each and every group.

Now that the RFP has arrived, what's next? As you open the package you note the cover letter states that the school district wants a proposal to conduct some rodent eradication and exclusion at the local high school, and to develop an IPM program for the entire district. Now comes the point where it helps to have a friend or two to contact to see the extent of the need and where it might lead in the future. Is the mayor of the city also involved with the school district? Could the program be selected for use in the city's buildings later?

BREAKING IT DOWN. The RFP packet is divided into sections. Each section will provide you with specific information regarding what is expected or desired of the contractor. Even after you have written the proposal, go through the packet and make sure all items are satisfied. Missing one item can seriously jeopardize your chances of getting the bid.

• Requesting Agency. This section will state the name of the agency requesting service and the location of the service site. If the agency is located near your office but the service site is 300 miles away, it would be beneficial to add gasoline and other vehicle expenses into the contract. The requesting agency may be acting on behalf of another group. This will also assist you in tailoring your proposal, its contents and its language toward a particular group.

• Contact. As you might expect, the person to contact and the telephone number are also included. This person can be very beneficial to your efforts if you work with them. Call them and thank them for sending the packet. Ask questions and develop a relationship with the person. They may be able to help you if your proposal comes in missing a section. They have been known to call those companies they have talked with to remind them to amend their proposal; on the other hand, for those companies they have not heard from, they might just let it go.

•Qualifications of Bidding Contractors. This section will detail the specific size and type of company the agency wants to deal with. Among the frequently sought specifications are minority owner, small business, significant experience in certain specialty markets, entomologists on staff, and training programs.

• Insurance. The amount and type of insurance you carry should cover you with most RFPs. There are some groups that require a higher level of coverage than you currently have. The cost of obtaining additional coverage should be figured into the proposal. If you don't already have it set up, work with your insurance agent to have certificates of insurance available to include in such packets.

There are some agencies that will also want a copy of the automobile policy and lists or printouts of driving records of persons who may be working on their premises. Remember, it's their property; they can be as specific as they want.

• Type of Company. Whether your company specializes in termite control, general pest control, vertebrate control or consulting, the RFP will state what the agency is looking for. This section will request references of similar-sized accounts, training programs, materials used, types of vehicles, methods used, type of ownership of the company, and even drug testing programs.

• Safety Program. More and more RFPs are requesting that the contracting company have a safety program, and that a written copy of the program's provisions be sent with the proposal. For those without a safety program, make sure that the information you send with the proposal has indeed been implemented within your company before the due date. I have seen companies lose bids because the safety program information they submitted was a copy of someone else's program, and had never been instituted at their company.

Safety programs may include chemical safety, emergency procedures, driver and vehicle safety, loss control, responsible parties, drug testing, workplace safety, and many other facets, depending upon the requesting agency.

• Staff Credentials. This is the section that has traditionally included the statement that the contractor must have an entomologist on staff to qualify. The definition of "on staff" should be verified if you do not currently employ a full-time entomologist. Some agencies may allow you to retain an entomologist as a consultant for a certain number of hours per month to satisfy this requirement.

The designation "registered professional entomologist" (RPE) no longer exists except in bid language. Make sure to contact the bidding agency and inform them of this change. Several years ago, the American Registry of Professional Entomologists (ARPE) was absorbed by the Entomological Society of America. With this merger, ARPE's "RPE" designation was changed to Board Certified Entomolo gist, or BCE. When it became known that this designation required only the passing of a test and attending classes every year, most agencies, including the federal government, dropped the RPE designation.

It is also an excellent idea to get as many types of certifications and other titles for your entomologist(s) and technicians as possible. This lends more weight to your credentials. There have been some companies that have gotten bids over others because all of their technicians had taken and passed certain certification courses.

Include references of similar types of programs you have developed, bid on, and received in the past. If you are bidding for the service on a military installation, include other similar work you have done in the past. Even if it is not exactly the same, you can show the similarities, and come out looking even better.

• Description of Service Requested. This is usually the most detailed or the most ambiguous section. More and more, requesting groups are providing very specific details in the RFPs for the contract specifications. While each group will have a different type of service desired, there are usually similarities that can allow for a boilerplate proposal that only requires slight modification.

The "type of service" section will detail how, what, where and why service will be performed. Whether the requesting agency wants monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly or on-call service will be described here. When designing your proposal, pay strict attention to the specifications, and make sure to meet or exceed all of them whenever possible. Watch out for specifications for reports, follow-ups, notifications, and chemicals to be used. These can easily trip up the casual reader of an RFP.

There may be a requirement for prior approval of all chemicals, equipment and methods by the contracting agency, in addition to extraordinarily involved (and expensive) procedures that would not normally be covered in the contract. These should be factored into the price of the service.

• Payment Terms & Contract Conditions. Most RFPs will have a section detailing the payment terms and types of invoicing and reporting required by the requesting agency. "Net 30" would be an ideal payment program, but "net 60" or "net 90" is more likely. Make sure you can handle billing and payment schedules such as this before bidding on any project. You can even be innovative and suggest different payment schedules, ranging from invoicing for an entire quarter at the beginning of the quarter of service, cash discounts for payments received by a certain date, and other types of payment schemes.

Contract terms and conditions will have sections on the length of the contract, such as 12, 18 or 24 months. You can provide price discounts for longer-term contracts.

The conditions of most contracts will include a review time every quarter. If the contractor is not fulfilling the specifications of the contract, it may be terminated. Look at these reviews as a chance to revise your methods and make the program stronger.

Also make sure there is a 30-to-60-day cancellation clause stipulated in all contracts. It is a wise idea to obtain a copy of a sample contract to review prior to submitting the proposal.

DATES, DATES, DATES. There are four dates that are very important in any RFP: the date proposals are due, the reading date, the awarding or selection date, and the service commencement date.

• Due date. The due date is obviously important because this is when the proposal must be in the hands and stamped "received" by the requesting agency. Extensions are sometimes granted, but not usually. If you need more time, it is best to call the agency and let them know.

• Reading date. Some agencies will have a reading date. This is the date on which they will publicly read all proposals. It is good to attend the readings to enable you to answer any questions and hear what the competition is proposing and charging. It can be a learning experience for those new to the bidding process.

• Awarding or selection date. The selection or contract awarding date is when you can expect the decision to be made by the requesting agency. You can call the requesting agency the day after this date to find out who got the contract.

• Service commencement date. The awarding or selection date may prove useful in conjunction with knowing the date of commencement of service. The time between these two dates may be necessary to perhaps train a new person to handle the work.

It also helps to know when you should start showing up to conduct the service. That may sound odd, but I know of at least one company that was awarded a bid but then forgot to start the service. Three months after the contract was supposed to have begun, a representative of the agency called the company to complain about the poor service they had been receiving when in fact they had been receiving no service at all.

IN SUMMARY. When you receive an RFP, read the entire packet before writing anything. Some companies contract with consulting entomologists to write certain proposals for them. There is an art to writing a proposal, and most of us have gone through a number of failures to learn how to do it. While there is always a tendency to want to submit low prices for these proposals, make sure you get what you need to do the work right.

Jim Harmon is a Board Certified Entomologist based in Alhambra, Calif.