Senate Bill 51 Changes To The Illinois Procurement Code

During the Spring of 2009, the Illinois Reform Commission and the Joint Legislative Committee on Government Reform studied the practices of Illinois State Government including, through a series of public hearings, the procurement process.  The result of that review and those hearings was Senate Bill 51, which was ultimately signed into law as Public Act 96-795 during November, 2009 and which makes many significant changes to the Procurement Code.  There are organizational changes as well as changes to the Higher Education Procurement Rules.  But the majority of the changes which will affect the contracting process are procedural in nature.

Most of the procedural changes will have no direct effect upon those outside of the campus purchasing department.  However, the indirect effect on customers of the purchasing department will be a more lengthy formal competitive selection and contracting process and the possibility that the purchasing department may request additional information regarding specific purchases.

  A few of those procedural changes are as follows:

• There are new requirements for public hearings for sole source purchases and extensions of emergency contracts beyond an initial 90 day period.
• Suppliers responding to formal competitive solicitations will now be required to be authorized to do business in the state of Illinois through a registration process with the Secretary of State. 
• Copies of all subcontracts will now be required to be filed with the Chief Procurement Officer for Higher Education and contractor and subcontractor disclosures of financial interests and conflicts of interest must now be filed with the state Procurement Policy Board. 
• Payment will not be made to suppliers for the provision of goods or services received before a state funded contract is reduced to writing unless a waiver is obtained from the State Comptroller. 

There are other procedural changes to the State Procurement Code, but these are probably the most significant.  Your campus purchasing department has detailed information regarding the changes to the Procurement Code and the plans for compliance with these new requirements by the effective date of July 1, 2010. 

The reform also includes language concerning communications between state employees and potential suppliers.  The effective date concerning just this segment of the code is January 1, 2011. University employees with the authority to approve the procurement of goods and services for their department, school, college, or administrative unit should visit the Procurement Communication Reporting page of the ISU Ethics website to learn more about reporting obligations. (A direct link to the Procurement Policy Board website is also provided.) All questions and concerns should be directed to the Office of Equal Opportunity, Ethics, and Access by emailing ethics@ilstu.edu (preferred) or call 438-3383.

In summary, Senate Bill 51 has made significant changes to the Illinois Procurement Code which will increase the administrative workload of the your purchasing department, will add additional time consuming steps to the formal bid solicitation and contracting process, and may result in requests for additional information from those initiating purchase requests.  Your purchasing department is, and will be, doing everything possible to minimize these effects and will strive, as always, to make the purchasing experience as positive and effective as possible.