This article is an excerpt from The Art of Tendering: A Global Due Diligence Guide, which is available for purchase.
In its February 2008 decision in Accela, Inc. v. Sarasota County, the Florida Second District Court of Appeal struck down a piggyback contract due to scoping issues. Rather than running an open tendering process for new zoning and building permit management software, the county licenced a software product under an existing standing agreement between the software provider and the State of Wisconsin. While Florida procurement rules permit piggybacking onto the contracts of other institutions, the Court struck down the new award since it included 32 software modules that were outside the scope of the original Wisconsin contract. As this case shows, even where it is allowed, piggybacking comes with process and scoping restrictions that must be adhered to in order to ensure a legally valid contract award.
