By West S.B. No. 257
74R1445 JRD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to establishing a good faith effort checklist to guide
1-3 state agency efforts in assisting historically underutilized
1-4 businesses to contract with the state and to auditing and enforcing
1-5 state agency compliance with the state's purchasing assistance
1-6 goals for those businesses.
1-7 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-8 SECTION 1. Article 1, State Purchasing and General Services
1-9 Act (Article 601b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by
1-10 adding Section 1.05 to read as follows:
1-11 Sec. 1.05. GOOD FAITH EFFORT CHECKLIST; COMPLIANCE WITH
1-12 PURCHASING ASSISTANCE GOALS FOR HISTORICALLY UNDERUTILIZED
1-13 BUSINESSES. (a) A state agency shall whenever appropriate take
1-14 the following actions when contracting for the purchase of
1-15 supplies, materials, services, or equipment, or for the
1-16 construction of a public work, as part of the agency's efforts to
1-17 assist historically underutilized businesses to receive state
1-18 contracts or business related to state contracts. The agency
1-19 shall:
1-20 (1) provide timely notice of a contracting opportunity
1-21 to at least five historically underutilized businesses that have
1-22 the ability to perform the contract;
1-23 (2) advertise the contracting opportunity in general
1-24 circulation media, trade association media, and media that focus on
2-1 serving one or more kinds of historically underutilized businesses;
2-2 (3) provide timely written notice of a contracting
2-3 opportunity to a reasonable number of historically underutilized
2-4 businesses that may be interested in receiving the contract;
2-5 (4) effectively use the services of minority, women,
2-6 and community organization contractor groups, local, state, and
2-7 federal business assistance offices, and other organizations that
2-8 provide assistance in identifying historically underutilized
2-9 businesses that have the ability to perform the contract;
2-10 (5) use appropriate media to widely disseminate
2-11 information about the contracting opportunity to increase the
2-12 likelihood that interested historically underutilized businesses
2-13 will learn of the opportunity, including media such as direct mail,
2-14 direct phone contact, local newspapers, the Texas Register, trade
2-15 journals, journals of professional organizations, electronic
2-16 bulletin boards, electronic mail, and diskette;
2-17 (6) inform appropriate persons and organizations who
2-18 can help widely disseminate information about the contracting
2-19 opportunity to increase the likelihood that interested historically
2-20 underutilized businesses will learn of the opportunity, including
2-21 various minority and women chambers of commerce, trade
2-22 associations, building trade associations, and contractor
2-23 associations, state senators and state representatives, and black,
2-24 Hispanic, and women caucuses in the legislature;
2-25 (7) contact historically underutilized businesses
2-26 after the initial solicitation of bids or offers to determine with
2-27 certainty whether the contacted businesses are interested in the
3-1 contracting opportunity;
3-2 (8) divide contract work or purchases into the
3-3 smallest reasonable units to enhance the possibility of
3-4 historically underutilized business participation in the
3-5 contracting opportunity;
3-6 (9) provide interested historically underutilized
3-7 businesses with adequate information about bonding and insurance
3-8 requirements, the plans, specifications, and scope of the work, and
3-9 other requirements for the contract;
3-10 (10) award a contract to a historically underutilized
3-11 business that qualified as the lowest responsible bidder;
3-12 (11) negotiate in good faith with interested
3-13 historically underutilized businesses whenever negotiation is
3-14 allowed; and
3-15 (12) document the reasons for rejecting an offer or
3-16 bid by a historically underutilized business, send a written
3-17 rejection notice that includes the reasons for rejection to the
3-18 historically underutilized business, and on request meet with the
3-19 historically underutilized business to discuss the reasons for
3-20 rejection.
3-21 (b) The state auditor shall audit a state agency's
3-22 compliance with the good faith effort checklist when the auditor
3-23 conducts a compliance audit of the agency. The state auditor each
3-24 biennium shall audit for compliance with the good faith effort
3-25 checklist each state agency that the auditor estimates will spend
3-26 more than $1 million on the purchase of goods and services during
3-27 the biennium.
4-1 (c) The commission may inspect the state auditor's reports
4-2 on the results of audits conducted under Subsection (b) of this
4-3 section. The commission may also require a state agency to send
4-4 information to the commission that demonstrates whether the agency
4-5 is, whenever appropriate, taking the actions required under the
4-6 good faith effort checklist. If the commission finds that a state
4-7 agency is not making the good faith effort required by state law to
4-8 assist historically underutilized businesses to receive state
4-9 contracts or business related to state contracts, the commission
4-10 may revoke purchasing authority that the commission delegated to
4-11 the agency under Section 3.06 of this Act or that the commission
4-12 delegated to the agency by rule under Section 3.08(a) of this Act.
4-13 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
4-14 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-15 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-16 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
4-17 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
4-18 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
4-19 passage, and it is so enacted.