The Champions of Rolla Education were notified Thursday its bid to run the Rolla License Office was accepted by the Missouri Office of Administration, according to Rolla Superintendent Dr. Jerry Giger.
Beating out bids from Alternative Opportunities Inc. and Applus Technologies Inc., CORE, a non-profit organization that provides additional funding to Rolla schools, will remain in charge of the office it has run for 15 years.
“CORE is happy to receive the bid for the Rolla License,” said Suzanne Vaughan, president of CORE.
The process has not been simple, with three rounds of bid submissions in the last several months being conducted before the final decision. And amid the protracted process, there have been claims of impropriety in relation to several other bids awarded to Alternative Opportunities.
AO, a non-profit organization based in Springfield, submitted bid applications for about 17 license offices throughout Missouri, several of which already have been awarded.
However, 10 of those bids were reopened after factual errors were discovered in AO’s applications.
The factual errors centered around the listing of Tom Gross as the contract manager. Gross is the chief financial officer for W.D. Management, a company originally set up by AO, but later sold to Providence Service. It was deemed a violation of the bids specifications of not permitting subcontractors.
