Sacramento -- The California Department of General Services has completed its development of new, restrictive, interim guidelines for the state's acquisition of all goods and services.  The new procedures, requested by Governor Gray Davis in an Executive Order issued last week, puts in place new rules until a thorough review of all state contracting is completed. 

 The new guidelines essentially require departments to seek at least three offers from competing vendors, and it places strict monetary limits and oversight review on all contracts.  Departments seeking contracts with a value greater than $100,000 have to stay within the limits, with no exemptions allowed. In most cases, prior approval is required by department directors and the Department of General Services.   Non-competitive bid contracts will now require approval of the Agency Secretary and the Department of Finance and will be severely limited to essential services or where the public health and safety are at risk. 

The new guidelines will be in effect during a 90-day review period during which a special panel, appointed by the Governor, will recommend changes necessary to ensure open and competitive bidding is being utilized to the greatest extent possible in awarding state contracts. In the meantime, failure by departments to comply with the new rules will result in the loss of the purchasing privileges.

Note: the Management Memo detailing the changes can be accessed online at:
http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/osp/sam/mmemos/mm02_12.pdf (offline)

 

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