§ 37-2.4-3. Purchasing.
(a) This section shall not apply with respect to the procurement of any commodity which
is available for procurement from an entity established pursuant to chapter 7 of title 13 ("Prisoner Made Goods�) or chapter 9 of title 40 ("Services for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired�) and as provided under
subsection (e) of this section and notwithstanding any provision in this chapter or
the general or public laws to the contrary, any state agency shall purchase goods
and services produced by a habilitation facility using the preferred procurement contract
list approved pursuant to § 37-2.4-2(b)(3) providing that:
(1) The goods or services offered for sale by a habilitation facility reasonably conform
to the needs and specifications of the public procurement unit;
(2) The habilitation facility can supply the goods or services within a reasonable time;
and
(3) The price of the goods or services is reasonably competitive with the cost of procuring
the goods or services from another source.
(b) If there is no price agreement in place that a state agency plans to use, a price
can be negotiated between the habilitation facility that can meet the specifications
of the board. The board will make a recommendation to the director of administration.
(c) Existing multi-year contracts can continue through their term. New multi-year requirements
for services must follow the process for purchasing from the habilitation facility.
(d) Each habilitation facility:
(1) May submit a price for a product or service to the board at any time and not necessarily
in response to a request for bids; and
(2) Shall certify on any bid it submits to the board or to a public procurement unit under
this section that is claiming a preference under this section.
(e) During a fiscal year, the requirement for a public procurement unit to purchase goods
and services produced by a habilitation facility under the preferred procurement list
under subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section does not apply if the division
of purchasing and general services determines that the total amount of procurement
contracts with habilitation facilities has reached three million dollars ($3,000,000)
for that fiscal year. The total amount of procurement contracts can be changed with
a recommendation by the board and approval from the director of administration.
(f) Any state agency that has awarded a solicitation for goods and services to a certified
habilitation facility shall, before the expiration of the term of the contract, renegotiate
a fair and reasonable price for the services with the certified habilitation facility
that has performed the services for the state agency. The state agency is not permitted
to solicit new bids for the product or service unless one of the following occurs:
(1) The certified habilitation facility no longer wishes to perform the services for the
state agency;
(2) The state agency decides to perform the services internally and hires employees who
will be employees of the state to perform the services;
(3) The state agency no longer needs the service that was provided by the habilitation
facility;
(4) The habilitation facility has not met the requirements for the services offered; or
(5) The habilitation facility and the state agency are unable to agree to fair and reasonable
terms of a new contract for the habilitation facility's services during the negotiation
process.
(g) Any state agency that has awarded a solicitation for services to a certified habilitation
facility shall report to the board regarding the progress of the solicitation once
a year.