Absence of bond requirements on municipal construction/sewer projects

On behalf of the National Association of Surety Bond Producers (NASBP), a national trade association located in Washington, DC, which serves a membership of firms with personnel of over 5,000 surety agents and brokers, I, as the First Vice President of NASBP and a concerned Kentucky businessman, citizen, and taxpayer, am writing you to express concerns over a recent procurement for sewer improvements conducted by the City of Maysville. More specifically, Addendum Number 1, Washington Area Sewer Improvements, Contract 1 – Sewer Line Extensions, provided that the City of Maysville would not require bid bonds from interested bidders and was reserving the option to waive payment and performance bonds for the project. It is not clear on what grounds those decisions were made; however, I firmly believe that those decisions are not in the best interests of the City of Maysville or its citizens and that the City of Maysville is assuming project risks that could and should be addressed through requirements for the requisite bid, payment, and performance bonds, the absence of which places taxpayer dollars at unnecessary risk.

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