An Act To Ensure Accountability in State Contracts
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 5 MRSA §1523 is enacted to read:
§ 1523. Criteria for state contracts
1. State contracts. In addition to any other requirement under this Part, the Department of Administrative and Financial Services shall ensure that a request for proposals or solicitation of bids by the State, including by a state agency as defined in section 1552, subsection 6, for a contract to provide property, products or services from a person, including a nonprofit corporation under Title 13-B, includes the following information:
A. A description of the property, products or services;
B. The estimated cost of providing the property, products or services;
C. The estimated duration of the contract;
D. The estimated number of people to be employed in fulfilling the contract; and
E. A list of any interim or final reports required.
2. Posting of information. The Department of Administrative and Financial Services shall post the information required under subsection 1 on the publicly accessible portion of the department's website. The department shall also post on the publicly accessible portion of the department's website:
A. Details of the final contract entered into pursuant to a request for proposals or solicitation of bids under this section, including the information provided by the successful bidder in response to the request for proposals or solicitation of bids under subsection 1;
B. Any analysis or comparison of costs of the contract, including but not limited to an analysis performed by the requesting or soliciting agency or by the Bureau of General Services under section 1816-A or 1825-B; and
C. Any additional reports or documentation provided by the requesting or soliciting agency to the Bureau of General Services relating to the request, solicitation or contract, including but not limited to any anticipated effect on state employees or positions in State Government.
3. Application. This section applies to any contract for the provision of property, products or services with respect to a budget adopted under chapter 149.
SUMMARY
This bill requires a request for proposals or solicitation of bids by the State for a contract for the provision of property, products or services with respect to the state budget to include certain defining information and requires the information to be posted on the publicly accessible portion of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services website.