MidWeek disputes The owner of MidWeek newspaper is challenging the U.S. Navy's decision to award the Honolulu Advertiser a contract to print, distribute and sell advertising for the Hawaii Navy News.
Navy bid given
to Advertiser
The weekly paper alleges
contract criteria were changed
three days after bids were submittedBy Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.comMidWeek Printing Inc. has charged that the Navy changed selection criteria after a bid deadline and gave the successful bidder, the Honolulu Advertiser, an unfair advantage by touring its printing plant. It also alleged that MidWeek's former publisher undermined its bid before leaving to take a job with the Advertiser.
In a formal bid protest filed Friday with the Navy and the General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C., MidWeek Printing, whose sister company Oahu Publications owns the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, said the Navy amended the selection criteria for the two-year contract three days after the Dec. 4, 2001, deadline to submit bids.
MidWeek's attorney, Robert Takamatsu, also said local Navy personnel gave the Gannett Co.-owned Advertiser an unfair advantage by meeting with the newspaper's executives on Aug. 10, 2001, to examine the Advertiser's South Street printing plant.
Navy officials did not inspect MidWeek's printing plant in Kaneohe.
Michael Fisch, the Advertiser's president and publisher, denied that his company received favorable treatment. He declined comment on MidWeek's specific allegations, saying he has not seen the protest.
"Clearly, we feel that we fulfilled both the expectation and the spirit of the bid process and we'll let the legal process take its course," Fisch said.
Lori Chang, an attorney for the Navy, declined comment. Gerard Sekerek, managing editor of the Hawaii Navy News, referred all questions to a Navy spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, who declined comment.
Both Campbell and Sekerek took part in the review of the Hawaii Navy News contract, according to MidWeek.
The Hawaii Navy News, a weekly publication, is distributed to about 15,000 readers at Pearl Harbor and other local Navy facilities. MidWeek has had the contract to print, distribute and sell advertising for the weekly since the late 1980s. That contract generated about $500,000 in revenue for MidWeek last year.
MidWeek also prints and distributes the local weekly newspapers for the Army, Air Force and Marines.
The Navy contract dispute comes as Honolulu's two daily newspapers are locked in a heated rivalry after sharing business operations for more than three decades.
Nearly a year ago, David Black, a Canadian newspaper executive, acquired the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek, a weekly newspaper, after the Star-Bulletin's previous owner, Liberty Newspapers LP, attempted to close the newspaper. Prior to Black's acquisitions, the Star-Bulletin and the larger Advertiser operated under a joint operating agreement in which the two dailies shared printing and distribution costs but had separate editorial functions.
The Navy's regional contracting department put the Hawaii Navy News contract out for bid Oct. 24, 2001, and awarded the Advertiser the contract Jan. 25.
Bids were evaluated according to their technical plan, corporate experience and management plan.
Joseph Saunders, a contracting staffer who reviewed the bids but has since moved to the mainland, informed MidWeek in a Jan. 25 e-mail that it received a mediocre rating of "acceptable" on its management plan. MidWeek was rated "good" for its technical plan and "excellent" on its past performance.
In its legal challenge, MidWeek is asking that the Navy terminate its contract with the Advertiser and put it back out for bid. MidWeek said the Navy "acted improperly" by amending its request for proposals on Dec. 7, 2001 -- three days after bids were submitted.
"After-the-fact modifications raise concerns about the contracting agency reviewing the proposals that have already been submitted and then changing the terms of the (request for proposals) so that one of the proposals has an advantage over the other," Takamatsu said.
MidWeek also said there was an attempt by its former publisher, Ken Berry, to "sabotage" its bid. The company said that it entrusted Berry to prepare its bid but that Berry resigned to join the rival Advertiser on Dec. 10, 2001, six days after bids were submitted.
MidWeek attorney Takamatsu said Berry "omitted several key facts" in MidWeek's bid.
Berry also told MidWeek's president, Don Kendall, on several occasions late last year that MidWeek did not need to provide all of the materials requested by the Navy because Berry didn't believe the Advertiser would bid on the contract, Takamatsu said.
"The public interest in having a fair and open procurement process would be undermined if MidWeek is penalized due to Berry's decision to submit an inadequate bid in an effort to assist his future employer's efforts to be awarded the Navy News contract," Takamatsu said.
Berry disputed MidWeek's version of events but declined further comment.
MidWeek's bid protest will be reviewed by the Navy's local contracting office.
The General Accounting Office, which reviews disputes on federal government contracts, also will review the complaint and make a determination with 30 days.