STAND. COM. REP. NO.  484

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2009

 

RE:   H.B. No. 638

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 638 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII PUBLIC PROCUREMENT CODE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

The purpose of this measure is to speed up the award of public contracts.

 

     Specifically this measure requires the dismissal of a protest of an award or contract if the protest is based upon an inadvertent error in a bid that is less than one per cent of the bid amount.

 

     The State Procurement Office recommended the measure be held.

 

     Your Committee finds that additional measures to discourage frivolous or bad-faith protests may expedite the awarding of public contracts and eliminate delays in providing essential facilities and services to the public.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Permitting an administrative proceeding to protest a solicitation or award under section 103D-302 or 103D-303 only if:

(A)  The protest concerns a matter that is equal to no less than ten per cent of the total estimated value of the contract; and

 

(B)  The soliciting party pays a cash or protest bond to the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs in an amount equal to one per cent of the total estimated value of the contract, up to a maximum of $50,000, for contracts of $1,000,000 or more;

 

(2)  Providing for the disposition of the cash or protest bond upon the outcome of the administrative hearing, as follows:

 

          (A)  Returned to an initiating party, if the party prevails; or

 

          (B)  Fifty per cent deposited into the compliance resolution fund and fifty per cent deposited into the general fund, if the initiating party does not prevail;

 

     (3)  Defining "estimated value of the contract"; and

 

(4)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 638, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 638, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Revitalization, Business, & Military Affairs,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair