SB 447

Currently, the Department of Administration (DOA) or any state agency to

which DOA delegates purchasing authority may contract for services if the services

can be performed more efficiently or economically by contract than by state

employees. This bill allows contracting for services if at least two of the following

three conditions are met: 1) The services may be performed more economically by

contract than by state employees; 2) When considering expertise, the services can be

performed more efficiently by contract than by use of current full-time state

positions; or 3) When considering timeliness, the services can be performed more

efficiently by contract than by state employees. Currently, under rules promulgated

by DOA, certain persons aggrieved by a solicitation for, or an award of, a contract

have five days from the solicitation or award to file a notice of intent to protest with

the agency soliciting the services or awarding the contract and ten days to serve that

agency with the written protest. This bill extends the time to file a notice of intent

to protest to seven working days and the time to file a protest to 12 working days.

Under current law, if a state agency enters into or renews a contract for services

that involves an estimated expenditure of more than $25,000, the agency must

conduct either a uniform cost-benefit analysis, for a new contract, or a continued

appropriateness review, for a contract renewal. This bill requires a cost-benefit

analysis or continued appropriateness review to consider all relevant costs including

salaries and benefits, training requirements, liability insurance, overhead, facility

costs, and taxes. Under this bill, no cost-benefit analysis may be shown to any bidder

until a letter of intent to contract has been issued. This bill generally requires that,

if a contract is for more than $25,000, any expenditures of the contractor that exceed

the bid by more than 10 percent may be paid only if the secretary of administration

approves payment of the increased amount and submits to the Joint Committee on

Finance (JCF) his or her rationale for approval. In addition, this bill requires DOA

to review each cost-benefit analysis or continued appropriateness review and certify

them as accurate, and requires each contracting agency to perform periodic audits

on its cost-benefit analyses and continued appropriateness reviews and on its

subsequent contracts.

The bill requires the Division of Legal Services in DOA to develop standard

performance measures, as well as benchmark indicators, to evaluate services

performed by contract for a state agency and to determine what actions taken by the

contractor would result in the state agency recovering the expenditures it paid to the

contractor.

Under current law, if a state agency for which services are performed concludes

that the services were unsatisfactory, the agency must file an evaluation with DOA,

and DOA must ensure that future contracts are not awarded to contractors whose

past performance was unsatisfactory. This bill adds that a state agency must file an

evaluation with DOA if the contractual services are unsatisfactory according to the