As I said in a previous post, the reason for the single source was the fact that WV has an existing contract with Cisco and instead of going the proper route of purchasing, a very, very painful and dreadfully long process, they simply used the existing contract route. It was improper bidding but it was bid out at one point. The real problem is with the purchasing division here in WV making the entire process something that people want to avoid. Agencies actively seek ways to avoid having their contracts tied up in purchasing red tape for months and even years. Even the former governor Joe Manchin got caught stringing contracts to avoid the limit required to trigger the purchasing rules (Then it was $10,000.00).
For those that don't know, stringing is the process of breaking down large dollar contracts down below the limit required by law for the bidding process. So a $50,000.00 contract would be split into 6 with each being below $10,000 which means no bids were required. They would then be awarded to the contractor one after the other until the true agreed upon amount has been reached. It is skirting the law that was done to keep it out of purchasing. It is the WV purchasing process that is mostly at fault. It shouldn't be that difficult or take as long as it does to get a job done or equipment procured. But here in WV it does!