Xerox’s $15.7M contract with Pennsylvania House of Representatives is canceled

Pennsylvania”™s House of Representatives has terminated its five-year, $15.7 million contract with Norwalk-based Xerox, claiming that its contract for Xerox copiers and printers was too expensive. However, the legislative body will pay the company $5 million for breaking the contract.

According to a report from the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg, House Chief Clerk Dave Reddecliff began reviewing the contract last year after he came to his job. Reddecliff claimed that he was confused over the details of the contract, which involved the House paying Xerox more than $262,000 per month for the lease of 430 copiers and printers. Reddecliff hired a former Xerox employee named Matthew Smith, who now works for the New York consulting firm Copy Watch Inc., to arrange a new deal with Canon at $189,000 a month or $11.3 million over five years. Although Xerox countered the Canon deal with a lower offer, Reddecliff chose to terminate the agreement.

Canon agreed to loan the House the $5 million to pay for the premature cancellation of the Xerox contract.