State Codes and Statutes
Statutes > Connecticut > Title2 > Chap018a > Sec2-71pSec. 2-71p. Purchases and contracts for supplies, materials, equipment and contractual services; sale of obsolete, unserviceable or unusable personal property; competitive bidding or competitive negotiation; emergencies; award of orders and contracts. (a) As used in this section, unless the context indicates a different meaning, "supplies", "materials" and "equipment" mean any and all articles of personal property furnished to or used by the Legislative Department, including all printing, binding, publication of laws, stationery, forms and reports; "contractual services" means any and all laundry and cleaning service, pest control service, janitorial service, security service, the rental and repair, or maintenance, of equipment, machinery and other state-owned personal property, advertising and photostating, mimeographing, data entry, data processing and other similar service arrangements where the services are provided by persons other than state employees; "competitive bidding" means the submission of prices by persons, firms or corporations competing for a contract to provide supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services, under a procedure in which the contracting authority does not negotiate prices; "competitive negotiation" means a procedure for contracting for supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services, in which (1) proposals are solicited from qualified suppliers by a request for proposals and (2) changes may be negotiated in proposals and prices after being submitted; "bidder" means a person, firm or corporation submitting a competitive bid in response to a solicitation; and "proposer" means a person, firm or corporation submitting a proposal in response to a request for proposals.
(b) (1) All purchases of, and contracts for, supplies, materials, equipment and contractual services required by the Legislative Department, except purchases made pursuant to subsection (c) of this section and public utility services as provided in subsection (e) of this section and (2) all sales by said department of such personal property which has become obsolete, unserviceable or unusable, shall be based, when possible, on competitive bids or competitive negotiation, provided in the case of such sales, the Joint Committee on Legislative Management may, in its discretion, sell the property at public auction. The committee shall solicit competitive bids or proposals by sending notices to prospective suppliers and by posting notice on a public bulletin board in a building under the supervision and control of the Joint Committee on Legislative Management. Each bid and proposal shall be kept sealed or secured until opened publicly at the time stated in the notice soliciting such bid. If the amount of the expenditure or sale is estimated to exceed fifty thousand dollars, competitive bids or proposals shall be solicited by public notice, inserted at least once in not fewer than three daily newspapers published in the state, and at least five calendar days before the final date for submitting bids. All purchases or sales of ten thousand dollars or less in amount shall be made in the open market, but shall be based, when possible, on at least three competitive quotations.
(c) The committee may waive the requirement of competitive bidding or competitive negotiation in the case of minor nonrecurring and emergency purchases of ten thousand dollars or less in amount. The committee shall adopt guidelines establishing (1) standards and procedures for using competitive negotiation for purchases and contracts, including but not limited to, criteria which shall be considered in making purchases by competitive negotiation and the weight which shall be assigned to each such criterion and (2) standards and procedures under which additional purchases may be made under existing contracts.
(d) Whenever an emergency exists by reason of extraordinary conditions or contingencies that could not reasonably be foreseen and guarded against, or because of unusual trade or market conditions, the committee may, if it is for the best interest of the state, waive the requirement that purchases be based on competitive bids or competitive negotiation as provided in this section. A statement of all such purchases and sales made under the provisions of this subsection shall be set forth in the annual report of the committee.
(e) The purchase of or contract for the following public utility services shall not be subject to competitive bidding or competitive negotiation: (A) Electric distribution services; (B) water services; (C) gas distribution services; (D) electric generation services until the date such services are competitive pursuant to the schedule set forth in section 16-244b, provided electric generation services shall be exempt from competitive bidding and competitive negotiation after said date if such services are provided by an electric municipal utility other than by a participating electric municipal utility, as defined in section 16-1, in the service area of said electric municipal utility; and (E) gas supply services until the date such services are competitive pursuant to legislative act or order of the Department of Public Utility Control, provided gas supply services shall be exempt from competitive bidding and competitive negotiation after said date if such services are provided by a gas municipal utility in the service area of said gas municipal utility.
(f) As used in this section, (1) "lowest responsible qualified bidder" means the bidder whose bid is the lowest of those bidders possessing the skill, ability and integrity necessary to faithful performance of the work based on objective criteria considering past performance and financial responsibility, and (2) "highest scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid" means the bidder whose bid receives the highest score for a combination of attributes, including, but not limited to, price, skill, ability and integrity necessary for the faithful performance of the work, based on multiple criteria considering quality of product, warranty, life-cycle cost, past performance, financial responsibility and other objective criteria that are established in the bid solicitation for the contract. Bidders shall submit with their bids essential information concerning their qualifications, in such form as the committee may require by specification in the bid documents. The committee may waive minor irregularities in bids and proposals if it determines that such a waiver would be in the best interest of the state. As used in this subsection, the term "minor irregularities" shall not include variations in the quality, unit price or date of delivery or completion of supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services, or exceptions to programs required under the general statutes. The committee shall state the reasons for any such waiver in writing and include such statement in the contract file.
(g) All open market orders or contracts shall be awarded to (1) the lowest responsible qualified bidder, the qualities of the articles to be supplied, their conformity with the specifications, their suitability to the requirements of the state government and the delivery terms being taken into consideration and, at the discretion of the committee, life-cycle costs and trade-in or resale value of the articles may be considered where it appears to be in the best interest of the department, (2) the highest scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid, in accordance with the criteria set forth in the bid solicitation, or (3) the proposer whose proposal is deemed by the committee to be the most advantageous to the department, in accordance with the criteria set forth in the request for proposals, including price and evaluation factors. In considering past performance of a bidder for the purpose of determining the "lowest responsible qualified bidder" or the "highest scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid", the committee shall evaluate the skill, ability and integrity of the bidder in terms of the bidder's fulfillment of past contract obligations and the bidder's experience or lack of experience in delivering supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services of the size or amount for which bids have been solicited. If any such bidder refuses to accept, within ten days, a contract awarded to such bidder, such contract may be awarded to the next lowest responsible qualified bidder or the next highest scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid, whichever is applicable, and so on until such contract is awarded and accepted. If any such proposer refuses to accept, within ten days, a contract awarded to such proposer, such contract shall be awarded to the next most advantageous proposer, and so on until the contract is awarded and accepted. There shall be a written evaluation made of each bid. This evaluation shall: Identify the vendors and their respective costs and prices; document the reason why any vendor is deemed to be nonresponsive; and recommend a vendor for award. The committee shall submit to the Auditors of Public Accounts an annual report of all awards made pursuant to the provisions of this section.
(h) When, in the opinion of the committee, the best interest of the state will be served thereby, it may order that any or all bids or proposals may be rejected. If all bids or proposals are so rejected, the committee shall advertise again for bids or proposals and such bids or proposals shall be opened, awarded and approved in like manner as provided in this section. If all bids or proposals received on a pending contract are for the same unit price or total amount, the committee may order the rejection of all bids or proposals and purchase of the required supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services in the open market, provided the price paid in the open market shall not exceed the bid price. Each bid or proposal, with the name of the bidder or proposer, shall be entered on a record, and each record, with the successful bid or proposal indicated thereon, shall, after the award of the order or contract, be open to public inspection.
(i) Any purchase or contract for supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services contrary to the provisions of this section shall be void and of no effect.
(P.A. 83-12, S. 1; P.A. 84-48, S. 2, 17; P.A. 87-589, S. 29, 87; P.A. 88-297, S. 9; P.A. 90-252, S. 6, 10; P.A. 95-52; 95-54, S. 3; P.A. 97-235, S. 2, 4; P.A. 99-161, S. 6, 11; P.A. 01-106, S. 4, 6.)
History: P.A. 84-48 required posting of notice in building under control of legislative management committee rather than at state capitol; P.A. 87-589 amended Subsec. (a) to increase amount of expenditure requiring bids from $6,000 to $7,500 and amended Subsec. (b) to authorize waiving bids for nonrecurring purchases of $400, rather than $300, or less; P.A. 88-297 inserted new Subsec. (a) defining applicable terms, relettered remaining Subsecs. accordingly, amended Subsec. (b) to repeal exception from competitive bidding requirement for purchases and contracts made pursuant to Sec. 4-132(c), to substitute "competitive bids" for "sealed bids" and to increase threshold for competitive bidding requirement from $7,500 to $10,000, amended Subsec. (c) to increase threshold for waiver of bidding requirement in case of minor nonrecurring and emergency purchases from $400 to $600, to authorize competitive negotiation for purchase or contract for data processing equipment, programs or services costing $20,000 or less or advertising space or time and to require adoption of guidelines re competitive negotiation and standards and procedures under which additional purchases may be made on limited basis under existing contracts, added reference to competitive negotiation in Subsec. (d), amended Subsec. (e) to add provisions re proposals and proposers, authorized life-cycle costs to be considered in determining lowest responsible qualified bidder, and made technical changes; P.A. 90-252 amended Subsec. (e) by defining "lowest responsible qualified bidder", requiring bidders to submit essential information re qualifications, allowing committee to waive minor irregularities, listing exclusions from term "minor irregularities" and specifying procedure for considering past performance in determining "lowest responsible qualified bidder"; P.A. 95-52 amended Subsec. (c) to authorize waiver of competitive bidding requirement in case of minor nonrecurring and emergency purchases of $1,000 or less, rather than $600 or less, divided Subsec. (e) into Subsecs. (e), (f) and (g) and redesignated existing Subsec. (f) as Subsec. (h), amended provision in redesignated Subsec. (f) re award of open market orders or contracts to proposer whose proposal is deemed most advantageous to department, in accordance with criteria set forth in request for proposals, to include "price and evaluation factors" and added provisions in redesignated Subsec. (f) requiring written evaluation of each bid specifying contents of evaluation and requiring committee to submit to Auditors of Public Accounts an overall report of all awards made pursuant to provisions of section; P.A. 95-54 amended definition of "contractual services" in Subsec. (a) by changing references to "other service arrangements" provided by persons other than state employees to "other similar service arrangements" provided by persons other than state employees; P.A. 97-235 amended Subsec. (c) to delete qualification that competitive negotiation may be used only for equipment having a cost of $20,000 or less, effective June 24, 1997; P.A. 99-161 added competitive negotiation as a permissible method for purchases and contracts, revised the exemption for certain public utility services and moved the exemption from Subsec. (b) to a new Subsec. (e), amended Subsec. (b) by increasing the threshold for publication of notices of planned purchases from $10,000 to $50,000, amended Subsec. (c) by increasing the maximum amount of purchases that can be waived from $1,000 to $10,000, by rewriting the requirements of the guidelines in Subdiv. (1) and (2) into a new Subdiv. (1) and renumbering Subdiv. (3) as Subdiv. (2), and by relettering Subsec. (e) to (h), inclusive, as (f) to (i), inclusive, effective July 1, 1999; P.A. 01-106 amended Subsec. (f) by designating definition of "lowest responsible qualified bidder" as Subdiv. (1) and adding Subdiv. (2) defining "highest scoring bidder in a multiple criteria bid" and amended Subsec. (g) by making technical changes for the purpose of gender neutrality, adding new Subdiv. (2) re multiple criteria bidding, renumbering former Subdiv. (2) as Subdiv. (3) and applying other provisions to multiple criteria bidding, effective July 1, 2001.
