Re: [ga] Re: Why did ICANN apparently award a $650K contract without any competitive RFP?

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>]

As promised, here is ICANN's response to my earlier questions, from today's 
transcript (broken up into two parts, as they split the first 3 questions from 
the last 2):

Source: http://www.streamtext.net/player/carttranscript?event=Hall6-Open-18Jul13

(sorry for all caps -- that's how it is in the transcripts)

--- part 1 begins ----------
>CHERINE CHALABY: THANK YOU. I WILL ASK FADI OR WHO FROM STAFF WOULD LIKE TO 
>DESCRIBE THE PROCESS OF -- OKAY. I'VE GOT AKRAM SAYING HE WANTS TO DO THAT. 
>>AKRAM ATALLAH: OKAY. SO IN PARTICULAR THE AROS PROJECT WAS A SPECIFIC 
>>IMPLEMENTATION AND WE DID NOT OPEN IT UP FOR -- WE DIDN'T DO AN OPEN RFP. WE 
>>ACTUALLY IDENTIFIED FOUR DIFFERENT KINDS OF IMPLEMENTATIONS THAT WE WANTED TO 
>>LOOK AT AND WE HAD FOUR DIFFERENT VENDORS BID ON THE CONTRACT AND WE 
>>IDENTIFIED THE IMPLEMENTATION THAT BOTH MEETS OUR TECHNICAL NEED AS WELL AS 
>>OUR LONG-TERM NEEDS IN THE SENSE THAT IT -- IT ACTUALLY ALLOWED US TO 
>>LEVERAGE OUR FUTURE CRM PLATFORM IN DEVELOPING THE SOFTWARE. THE OTHER THING 
>>THAT WAS A KEY IN THE -- IN THE CHOICE OF THE SOLUTION WAS THAT THE 
>>PARTICULAR VENDOR HAD ALREADY DEVELOPED A VERY SIMILAR SOLUTION FOR ANOTHER 
>>-- FOR ANOTHER REGISTRY, I THINK. SO THOSE TWO REQUIREMENTS MADE -- WERE 
>>ACTUALLY THE LEADING REASON WHY WE PICKED THAT PARTICULAR VENDOR OUT OF THE 
>>FOUR THAT APPLIED. AND THE PROCESS ACTUALLY DOES REQUIRE US TO DO AN OPEN RFP 
>>FOR ANY JOB THAT IS OVER $250K, BUT THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS AND THE EXCEPTIONS
 THAT APPLY FOR THIS PARTICULAR RFP IS THAT IT WAS A VERY SPECIFIC NEED AND THE 
KNOWLEDGE WAS -- THAT WE -- THAT WE NEEDED TO GO AFTER WAS VERY SPECIFIC AND IT 
WASN'T AN OPEN TECHNOLOGY THAT EVERYBODY -- ANYBODY COULD HAVE DONE IN THE TIME 
FRAME THAT WE NEED TO DO IT. SO THERE WERE URGENCY AS WELL AS SPECIFIC 
CONSIDERATIONS. SO WE FOLLOWED THE RFP. 
[ TIMER SOUND ] 
PROCESS ON EVERY BID AND WE DO THE RFPS ALWAYS, IN CERTAIN EXCEPTIONS WE DON'T. 
OKAY? I HOPE THAT ANSWER. 

--- part 1 ends ----------



--- part 2 begins ----------
>>OLGA MADRUGA-FORTI: THANK YOU. AND TO MANAGEMENT, TWO ASPECTS, NO? 
COMMUNICATIONS AND RFPs. 
>>FADI CHEHADE: YEAH. CERTAINLY. 
IF YOU RECALL, GEORGE, AT THE LAST PUBLIC FORUM I PROMISED THAT EVERY QUESTION 
THAT WAS POSED WILL BE ANSWERED, AND EVERY QUESTION THAT WAS POSED WAS 
ANSWERED. WE FOLLOWED UP EXACTLY AS WE SAID WITHIN TWO WEEKS. 
WE'RE NOT PERFECT AND THERE WILL CONTINUE -- THERE ARE MORE QUESTIONS. THE 
COMMUNITY IS GROWING. SO I AGREE WITH YOU. 
NOW, YOU'VE SENT ME A LETTER ON THE 29TH. I DID RECEIVE IT, INDEED. BUT I WAS 
ALREADY, LIKE MANY OF US, HEADING DOWN HERE SO I HOPE YOU'RE PATIENT A LITTLE 
BIT. I'LL TRY TO GET TO YOU IN CANADA AS SOON AS I CAN WITH AN ANSWER ON THAT, 
BUT I THINK ALSO AKRAM ANSWERED YOU QUITE CLEARLY TODAY ON THE LETTER CONTENTS, 
BUT WE'LL BE HAPPY TO ALSO FOLLOW UP AS NEEDED. THANK YOU, GEORGE. 

--- part 2 end ----------


Of course, these answers are entirely unsatisfactory. ICANN needs to follow its 
procurement guidelines, and have an open process, not invited bidders in an 
opaque system. Hopefully the folks that matter (NTIA, DOC, DOJ, IRS, GAC, etc.) 
look deeper into ICANN's procurement and how the funds of the public are not 
being spent in the most cost effective manner.


Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.leap.com/