Sec.16a-41-40. Standards for procurement

(a) General Standards for Procurement of Materials, or Contractor Labor:

(1) The service provider agencies must insure that all procurement transactions will be conducted in a manner to provide, to maximum extent practicable, open and free competition.

(2) Solicitations for bids/offers shall clearly set forth all requirements that the bidder/offeror must fulfill in order for a bid/offer to be evaluated by the grantee.

(3) Awards shall be made to the bidder/offeror whose bid/offer is responsive to the service provider agency's solicitation and is most advantageous to the service provider agency; price and other factors considered.

(4) The service provider agencies must maintain a code or standards of conduct that shall govern the performance of its officers, employees, or agents engaged in the awarding and administration of contracts using State Funds. Such codes or standards must provide that:

No service provider agency employee, officer or agent shall participate in the selection, award or administration of a contract in which State Funds are used, where to his knowledge, he or his immediate family or partner has a financial interest or with whom he is negotiating or has any arrangement concerning prospective employment. The service provider agency's officers, employees, or agents shall neither solicit nor accept gratuities, favors, or anything of monetary value from contractors or potential contractors. Such standards shall provide for disciplinary action to be applied for violation of such standards by the service provider agency's officers, employees or agents.

(5) Procurement standards shall be consistent with the federal standards covered by OMB Circulars A-102 and A-110 and will be amended from time to time.

(b) Specific Standards and Requirements for Procurement of Weatherization Materials, or Contractor Labor

(1) Steps must be taken by the service provider agencies to avoid the purchasing of unnecessary or duplicate items.

(2) Solicitations of bids (price quotations) must include:

Bid specifications: Clear and accurate descriptions of technical requirements for goods or services sought must be provided by the service provider agency to potential suppliers with every request or solicitation of a bid or price quotation. Such descriptions shall not, in competitive procurements, contain features which unduly restrict competition (e.g., "Brand name or equal" descriptions may be used as a means to define the performance or other significant features of the named brand which must be met by bidders/offerors and shall be clearly specified).

Criteria for: The service provider agencies must determine criteria for selection of a bid in advance and make that criteria known to potential bidders (e.g., possible criteria include: price, quality of goods, delivery date, etc.)

Additional items: Where bids exceeding $6,000 are to be received in writing (see sub-section (c) below), bid invitations must state date, time, and location for public opening of bids; that any bids not received on time will be rejected and returned unopened; and that the service provider agency may reject any and all bids.

(c) Solicitation of Bids—Manner of Getting Bids (price quotes)

(1) Purchases valued at less than $500 may be made at the discretion of the Executive Director without competitive quotations.

(2) For purchases valued at $500 to $4,000, telephone quotations are acceptable. Quotations from no less than three (3) sources will be solicited and recorded on a telephone bid form. Orders may be placed on the basis of the lowest acceptable price quotation. Records must be kept until the program is audited and a certificate of termination is issued.

(3) Formal requests for price quotations will be prepared by service provider agencies for purchases valued from $4,000 to $6,000 and will require a minimum of three (3) formal (written) quotations from vendors.

Identical formal requests describing in detail the items to be purchased, stating the required date of delivery, terms of payments, etc., must be presented to vendors believed to be capable of furnishing the items to be purchased. In all cases, it is mandatory that those solicited submit their quotations on the basis of identical requests for price quotations.

Requests for quotations and the quotations for each procurement action will be filed permanently and kept available for review by the Department of Human Resources, or its agents and representatives.

(4) For a purchase which is estimated to cost $6,000 or more, solicitation of bids must be formally advertised and bids received must be written, sealed and sent to the service provider agency for public opening at the advertised time and place. Exceptions to this advertising requirement are describedin sub-section (5) below.

(5) Procurement may be negotiated if it is impossible or not feasible to use formal advertising. In general, regulations provide that procurements of materials may be negotiated if:

A. The public emergency will not permit the delay incident to advertising.

B. The material to be procured is available from only one (1) person or firm (i.e., sole source — see sub-Section (6) below); or,

C. No acceptable bids have been received after formal advertising.

However, regulations do require that notwithstanding the existence of circumstances justifying negotiation, competition shall be obtained to the maximum extent practicable.

(6) Sole Source Procurement

It is recognized that, in some instances, service provider agencies may require certain items which due to their technical nature or relative lack of capable vendors, must be purchased from a "sole source."

For a proposed sole source contract, or where only one (1) bid is received involving $2,000 or more, the bid may not be awarded, or the sole source accepted, without the prior approval of the Department of Human Resources.

(d) Service provider agencies must utilize small businesses and minority-owned businesses whenever possible.

(e) Service provider agencies shall establish some form of price or cost analysis to be made with every procurement. Price analysis may be accomplished in various ways, including the comparison of price quotations submitted, market prices, etc.

(f) Service provider agencies must use purchase order for ALL procurements.

NOTE: All purchase orders must, on their face, show the Federal Specification, if any, for the item being purchased.

(g) Procurement Contracts-when required-contents:

(1) For purchases in excess of $2,000 the service provider agency must have, in addition to the purchase order, a signed contract (i.e., a written statement of the key terms of the agreement, signed by the seller and an authorized service provider agency representative. KEY TERMS to be included are: names of the service provider agency and the seller, the purchase price, the description and the quantity of goods purchased, the payment terms, and the date and terms of delivery).

A service provider agency may, as a matter of agency policy, require a contract for purchases of less than $2,000. Service provider agencies are advised, but not required, to consider requiring a contract for the purchase of any and all services.

(2) For purchases in excess of $6,000, the service provider agency's procurement contract must include the following provisions, in addition to the key terms listed in the preceding sub-section (1) above:

Provisions for contractual or legal remedies in instances in which contractors violate or breach contract terms, and also provisions for such sanctions and penalties for violation of the contract as may be appropriate;

Suitable provisions for the termination, and descriptions of conditions under which the contract may be terminated;

All negotiated contracts (for over $6,000) awarded by service provider agencies shall include a provision to the effect that the service provider agency, Department of Human Resources, or any of their duly authorized representatives shall have access to any books, documents, papers, and records which are directly pertinent to the Weatherization Program for the purpose of making an audit, examination, excerpts, and transcriptions.

(h) Recordkeeping on Procurement of Materials

(1) The service provider agency must keep up-to-date and complete records of all procurements available for inspection and auditing by the Department of Human Resources, or its authorized representative.

(2) Such records shall include:

A copy of the bid specifications and criteria for awarding the bid (for each procurement in excess of $500.00).

Manner used to obtain bids (e.g., telephone, letter, newspaper ad for all procurements).

The purchase order (for all procurements).

The actual contract, if one is required by the service provider agency or Department of Human Resources.

For purchases of $6,000 or more, justification for use of negotiation in lieu of advertising (if applicable) and the basis for the cost or the price negotiated.

(i) All materials purchased by service provider agencies, as discussed in the subsections above, shall be governed by the following:

(1) Standards: Only materials which meet or exceed the Federal standards shall be purchased with funds provided by Department of Human Resources to carry out a program of weatherization assistance.

(2) Conditions: To insure compliance with the above requirement:

All purchase orders must, on their face, state the applicable Standard for the product being purchased.

Suppliers of products must, either in a letter of acknowledgement or on their vendor's invoice for payment, indicate acceptance of the standards for the product(s) being supplied.

(3) Inspection: Upon receipt of orders, a visual inspection shall be made of the product(s) to insure conformance to the conditions specified on the purchase order.

(Effective August 25, 1986)