ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — At the regular meeting of St. John’s city council on Monday, council voted unanimously to order 53 Microsoft Surface Book 2 laptops from Brunnet Inc. at a cost of $120,153.65 “as emergency due to COVID-19 for staff to be working from home,” according to the public procurement form.
The contract for the laptops was awarded to Fredericton, N.B.-based Brunnet Inc. without going to tender because it was considered an emergency order.
“These laptops are required to try and establish a workforce that can work from home to insure (sic) that the city business can continue to operate,” reads the bid approval note to council.
The note also says the city’s current contractor could not supply the laptops within the time required.
The price per laptop works out to $2,267.05 if the total cost is split evenly between the 53 laptops.
“We have a significant number of employees who are working at home through many, if not all, city departments,” Mayor Danny Breen told reporters after the meeting.
“So, we didn’t have a supply of laptops available, so a purchase was made to have the employees work at home.”
According to Susan Bonnell, the city’s manager of communications and office services, whenever the pandemic ends, the laptops will be used in the city’s replacement program, which means the laptops will be used when older computers need to be replaced.
Bonnell also said the employees could not simply bring their workplace desktop computers home.
“The reason why laptops have to be purchased has to do with the fact that we have to have our staff mobile,” Bonnell said.
“So, we have staff who are having to be able to work both in the office and from home, and a lot of individuals don’t have the ability to take a desktop computer and connect it directly to their internet — they need a wireless ability to connect wirelessly, so that is the reason why laptops were purchased.”
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