By West S.B. No. 1240
75R3769 JRD-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the state's purchasing of services for state agency
1-3 clients.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 531, Government Code, is
1-6 amended by adding Section 531.0275 to read as follows:
1-7 Sec. 531.0275. PURCHASING CLIENT SERVICES. (a) The
1-8 commission shall coordinate and adopt rules to govern the
1-9 purchasing by state agencies of services for their clients,
1-10 including agencies that are not health and human services agencies.
1-11 The commission's rules adopted under this section apply directly to
1-12 health and human services agencies. Other state agencies shall
1-13 adopt rules governing purchases of services for their clients that
1-14 are consistent with the commission's rules.
1-15 (b) The commission's rules must ensure consistent practices
1-16 in the procurement of services for clients, efficient and effective
1-17 monitoring of contract providers, and improved accountability for
1-18 contract providers. The rules must:
1-19 (1) describe various contracting arrangements and
1-20 provide information to guide agencies in determining which
1-21 arrangements are most advantageous in particular situations;
1-22 (2) provide clear definitions of contracting terms;
1-23 (3) list minimum requirements and standard language
1-24 for the contracts;
2-1 (4) prescribe mandatory or describe sample performance
2-2 and outcome measures for the contracts; and
2-3 (5) prescribe procedures for efficiently coordinating
2-4 audits of contractors who contract with more than one agency or
2-5 more than one division within an agency.
2-6 SECTION 2. Subchapter C, Chapter 2101, Government Code, is
2-7 amended by adding Section 2101.040 to read as follows:
2-8 Sec. 2101.040. INFORMATION ON SERVICES PURCHASED FOR AGENCY
2-9 CLIENTS. To the extent feasible, the comptroller shall use the
2-10 uniform statewide accounting system to compile and make available
2-11 to the Health and Human Services Commission useful information
2-12 about state agencies' purchases of services for their clients. The
2-13 commission shall indicate to the comptroller the information that
2-14 the commission needs to monitor, improve, and coordinate those
2-15 purchases.
2-16 SECTION 3. The Health and Human Services Commission shall
2-17 preside over a working group to research the laws that govern the
2-18 purchasing of services by state agencies for their clients and to
2-19 develop recommendations on the feasibility and advisability of
2-20 merging those laws into a single comprehensive statute or otherwise
2-21 clarifying the law that governs those purchases. The working group
2-22 is composed of representatives of the commission, the governor's
2-23 office, the General Services Commission, the comptroller, the state
2-24 auditor, the Texas Legislative Council, and each agency that in the
2-25 opinion of the Health and Human Services Commission spends a
2-26 significant amount of money purchasing services for its clients.
2-27 The working group shall report its findings and recommendations to
3-1 the legislature not later than November 1, 1998. The working group
3-2 is abolished June 1, 1999.
3-3 SECTION 4. The comptroller with the assistance of the Health
3-4 and Human Services Commission shall study the costs and benefits of
3-5 developing a statewide contract management information system for
3-6 managing the purchasing of services by state agencies for their
3-7 clients. As part of the study, the comptroller and the commission
3-8 shall examine the extent to which the uniform statewide accounting
3-9 system could feasibly be modified to serve as the contract
3-10 management information system, whether it is feasible to use the
3-11 information in the uniform statewide accounting system to create a
3-12 separate contract management information system, and whether it
3-13 would be cost-effective to request proposals from private vendors
3-14 to create an entirely new contract management information system.
3-15 The comptroller shall report the findings and conclusions of the
3-16 study to the legislature not later than October 1, 1998.
3-17 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
3-18 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-19 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-20 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-21 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-22 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-23 passage, and it is so enacted.