Tenn. lottery chief keeping mum about several key questions

Oct 18, 2003, 1:51 pm (4 comments)

Tennessee Lottery

Tennessee lottery CEO Rebecca Paul is keeping quiet on several significant lottery issues, including why she wants to contract with a single vendor for lottery goods and supplies instead of splitting up the business among several vendors.

In an interview with The Tennessean earlier this week, Paul was questioned about language in the request for proposal (RFP) sent to vendors stating that it is the desire of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. to select a single vendor able to provide a comprehensive approach and solution to its gaming operations.

''I will discuss that after the award for the bid,'' Paul said. ''We are in the middle of a bid process. We have submitted questions and answers to the procurement panel and 87 lawyers.''

She said she did not want her quotes about the RFP to end up in the newspaper. ''I can talk to you generally, but I am not going to answer specific questions about the RFP.''

Paul also said she will not disclose the names of those serving on the committee evaluating the proposals until shortly before the proposals are opened Oct. 27. One of the reasons, she said, is that some of these people have not been hired. ''There a lot of folks floating around with lots of agendas,'' Paul said, explaining her actions. ''You don't want folks trying to influence people.''

The legislation creating the lottery and the college scholarship program it will fund gives lottery officials unbridled authority to decide what they want to keep confidential and what they want to disclose.

Vendors will be competing for a seven-year contract that will begin Feb. 10, when instant ticket games are to start. Lottery tickets are to be made available in denominations of $1, $2, $3, $5 and $10.

''If you look at the speed with which technology is changing, more than seven years is too long,'' Paul said. ''If you look at the cost of that technology, less than seven years is too short in terms of amortizing the cost of that equipment to get an effective price.''

Although online games are not to begin until April 10, online terminals must be in the field by Feb. 10 because they are used to validate winning instant tickets. ''You have to have the online gaming in place in order to sell instant tickets,'' Paul said.

The lottery corporation sent out RFPs on Oct. 3. The timetable calls for the evaluation committee to begin its work Oct. 27, the award to be announced Nov. 24 and the contract to be executed Dec. 2.

The successful vendor will be paid a percentage of proceeds from the sale of lottery tickets during the seven-year period of the contract.

Each vendor is required to submit a signed original and 10 reproduced copies of its proposal, indicating that there could be as many as 10 members of the evaluation committee who will examine the proposals.

Each vendor's price quote the percentage of net proceeds the vendor would charge for supplying the goods and services outlined in the RFP must be submitted separately in sealed and labeled envelopes.

When the evaluation is completed, the evaluation committee will submit a written recommendation to Paul, who may meet with the committee to ask questions and possibly change some of the recommendations. She then will submit the recommendation, including any changes, to the full board. It may approve, disapprove, amend or modify the terms of her recommendation. Before the contract can be awarded, Paul must obtain the board's approval.

The RFP for instant and online service is a 50-page document describing in detail the lottery equipment and services that the winning vendor is to supply. Included are a data center that will be located here or in an adjoining county, as well as a ''hot backup system,'' its location yet to be determined.

''We will require two data centers running simultaneously,'' Paul said. ''They both run from sign-on to sign-off, and if this one goes down, you don't have to start the other one. It is a hot backup, and you can go to it immediately.''

Proposals are to be judged on such factors as:

The contract must contain provisions to pay the lottery corporation liquidated damages for such things as a delay in the start of the lottery, a delay in the start of a new game, a shortage of tickets, security violations and untimely vending machine repair. The plan for paying for such damages must be submitted by the vendor and be satisfactory to the board.

The contract requires an elaborate plan for plant security, game ticket construction security, anti-counterfeiting and validation security, redemption security and game design security.

Tennessean

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vincejr's avatarvincejr

Hmmmm.....looking at the RFP, it seems that one company fits the bill perfectly.....three guesses as to which Connecticut based lottery company with extensive contracts in Georgia fits that bill...(and the first two don't count)

GTECH---taking over the world, one lottery at a time.

Todd's avatarTodd

Actually, GTECH is Rhode Island-based.

vincejr's avatarvincejr

Same difference, Todd...if

Todd's avatarTodd

I don't think the people from Boston would agree!  ("Yankee territory")

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