We’re learning more about the New York State Parks and Recreation Department’s efforts to buy new boats for its law enforcement fleet — but continually disqualifying a North Country company from the bid process. Some believe there’s red flags with the process, while others say there is a much simpler explanation as to why the department wants to hire a company from Washington State.

It all came to a head this past fall.

“This erroneous decision by New York State Parks not only contradicts the state's just own economic development goals, but it detracts from its investment,” Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency Board Chair Robert Aliasso said.

New York State Parks and Recreation needs 34 boats, and when the job went to bid, a North Country company, MetalCraft Marine, which already has contracts with the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, was not chosen. Instead, a company from Washington got the nod.

“A lot of people have thrown out other words, but I'll just stay with the integrity of that process,” state Assemblyman Scott Gray said.

Gray said he has had more questions than answers since he started to investigate the bid process, mentioning red flags along the way.

MetalCraft Marine's first submission was disqualified, only to be later overturned. Its second submission was also disqualified and again overturned. And now there's been a third disqualification.

“Now they say ‘we're not going to put it in writing. We're just going to tell you.’ That turns up all kinds of red flags,” Gray added.

But the biggest concern Gray had was that, when the bid amounts were discovered, MetalCraft’s bid and the winning bid were identical to the dollar.

The concerns were enough for New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to return the bid to New York State Parks and Recreation as “not approved” for a variety of factors, including insufficient information in the procurement record regarding bid rejections.

“We were more than enthused that the comptroller saw it for what we believe it is,” Gray said.

The office of Parks and Recreation would not comment directly on the procurement because it is still pending. However, it did note that a review of the record found the original letter of selection had a typographical error that incorrectly showed identical bid amounts were submitted. Spectrum News 1 asked what those incorrect amounts were, but did not hear back.

Gray says MetalCraft is more than capable to fulfill this bid and wants to see New York dollars stay in New York. He says if the bid process can be shown to be legit, and the award still goes out of state, then he and MetalCraft will respect the decision.