A technical error was reportedly behind the cancellation of the request for proposals for a $4.5 million digital radio upgrade to the county's first responder communication system.

Rockdale County Fire and Rescue Department Chief Franklin Wilson spoke to the SPLOST oversight subcommittee during their Monday evening meeting and apologized. The upgrade one of the capital improvement projects funded by the 2010 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, a penny sales tax approved by voters last year.

Wilson, who started his position in August, told the News on Tuesday, "It was a technicality on my part. I was unaware of the state law process as far as how the RFPs occur here. As the department head, I was not entitled to make an in-process change of the RFP. When I authorized an open change, it caused concern and it was the recommendation of the county attorney that we rescind it based on that. The fault was mine."

"I approached the SPLOST committee last night. I apologized for that oversight."

He said, in moving forward, "I am working with my staff and SPLOST subcommittee to determine what our next step will be... I hope all our vendors and staff understand it’s a mistake and we’re going to learn from it. But we’re going to be stronger the next go around."

He said the cancelation was not related to questions raised from a private resident. However, he added, "I’m allowed to go back now and look at all the data that brought us to that point and make sure we’re on task and make sure we didn’t miss any potential opportunities available to us."