State Contract Process Revised

Press Release

State Contract Process Revised

Gov. Mike Rounds says state agencies are well-prepared for a new law that expands the scope of state government professional services contracts that must be awarded on a competitive application basis.

The law, which will be enacted July 1, requires state agencies to request competitive proposals when awarding or renewing most contracts for professional services exceeding $50,000. Some agencies already have done so, the Governor says.

Contracts for other services, goods and supplies purchased by state government will continue to be subject to a competitive bidding process, Gov. Rounds says.

Under the new law, agencies seeking selected professional services will first post "requests for proposals" on the Web site (www.state.sd.us/boa/opm) of the state Office of Procurement Management. Architects, engineers, advertising firms, and other businesses - along with the public - may review the proposals on that site by clicking on the "Solicitation Board" link on the upper left.

The site will list the types of services needed by various state agencies and where more information can be obtained on those requests. Once contracts have been awarded, a list of all who submitted proposals will be posted on the state's OPEN SD Web site (Open.SD.gov) also will identify the businesses and individuals awarded state contracts, and the Web site will have links to allow the actual contracts to be viewed by the public.

"While the new law simply requires state agencies to maintain files in their offices with listings of businesses submitting proposals, posting these listings and successful contracts online will make the information more readily available to anyone who wishes to review it," Gov. Mike Rounds says.

OPEN SD, which currently contains nearly 280,000 state financial records, was put online about 10 months ago to provide information in a real-time, searchable format. Those records continually grow and are an addition to the more than 396,500 pages of information available on other state government Web sites.

"I believe the primary public benefit of easy access to those records is assurance that state government is doing its job efficiently and prudently," Gov. Rounds says. "After all, state government is supported by taxpayers, and taxpayers have a right to know how those funds are used."

"Media often clamor for more open records, but the truth is there are so many records available online now that no one realistically has the time to wade through all of them," the Governor adds.

In addition to a wealth of online information about state revenues and spending, state government also allows 97 percent of all state agency transactions, such as registration of motor vehicles, to be done via the Internet. All state forms also can be obtained online for printing.

OPEN SD also provides voluminous information about city, county and school governments. And the Web site also contains a link to RecoverySD, which provides detailed information about receipts and expenditures of the economic stimulus funds South Dakota has received through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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