[fsloth]

I'm totally unaware of conventions used in public purchases.

Isn't an "electornic auction system" just a database anyone can spam - the actual decisions are probably made by humans? My hunch (might be incorrect) that the auction system creates a barrier of disinterest where the official has very little else to go with than the prices quoted. In this case it's not that the machine is stupid - it's way worse, the system stops actively humans doing what humans are particularly good at - separating wheat from chaff based on experience and intuition - if the official will never use the chalks and has no idea what the impact of the product will be.

[kolinko]

The problem is that there is no known alternative really. If you just the government official decide, it breeds corruption.

Or at least it used to. Perhaps with the modern IT systems we could create a solution that delivers the transparency to the process - the official would explain his/her choices publicly, and the public would have an opportunity to argue...

[eli]

Sometimes you're required by law to go with the lowest valid bid (presumably to discourage kickbacks and self dealing)

[mordae]

Not really. It's to prevent silly mistakes.

[eli]

At the risk of sounding argumentative: yes, really!

Many (most? all?) state and local governments have laws that generally require you to go with the lowest valid bid to an RFP.