Erie County Comptroller Mark Poloncarz announced Wednesday that an auditors’ review of a photocopier bid saved the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.

After an April 2009 review, auditors found that the bid awarded to a vendor of rental photocopier machines was “flawed” because the criteria for a winning bidder had been changed during the process.

The review was requested after the vendor, Duplicating Consultants Inc., sued the county for as much as $1.3 million and billed the county $1 million for the rented photocopiers.

The auditors also determined that the vendor overcharged the county and that the county owed the vendor between $600,000 and $800,000 — not the $1 million that the vendor had billed.

The vendor’s lawsuit was settled with a payment of about $600,000 to the vendor from Erie County.

“There no question that the county owed money, but the vendor demanded double what was actually paid,” said Poloncarz.

He added that the auditors’ review and the resulting settlement marked a “success all-around.”

“It’s a perfect example of my office working with the Department of Law for what’s in the best interest of the county,” he said. “It shows that we will work together with issues of trying to save taxpayer money.”

© 2009 American City Business Journals, Inc.