I was surprised to find that La Plata Electric Association, our electric co-op, has no formal policy on publishing vendor requirements and purchasing requirements. I expected LPEA to be bound by laws and regulations to the same level of transparency as our municipal government.
But I’ve found LPEA has no formal procedure for publishing vendor requirements for large projects. LPEA has no formal procedure requiring it to publish Request for Proposals and, in fact, has not made the RFP for the partial supply contract available to members.
For an organization with a $140 million annual budget, this lack of transparency is astonishing. Purchasing and contracting transparency laws were created to prevent fraud and corruption. Why has our co-op not adopted transparent purchasing policies?
As an advocate for this transparency, I’ll be voting for John Purser.
Crystal Whitt
Durango
