October 3, 2005
The Honorable
RoAnn M. Destito, Chair
Assembly Committee on Governmental Operations
Room 621 LOB
Albany, NY 12248
The Honorable Robert K. Sweeney, Chair
Committee on Local Governments
Room 837 LOB
Albany, New York 12248
The Honorable Mark Weprin, Chair
Committee on Small Business
Room 626 LOB
Albany, NY 12248
The Honorable James F. Brennan, Chair
Committee on Oversight, Analysis and Investigation
Room 641 LOB
Albany, NY 12248
The Honorable
Joan L. Millman, Chair
Commission on Government Administration
Room 510 LOB
Albany, NY 12248
The Honorable Adam T. Bradley, Chair
SubCommittee on Oversight of the Department of Environmental Conservation
Room 529 LOB
Albany, NY 12248
Dear Chairs:
The Salt Institute is a not-for-profit association of salt producers including most of those who provide deicing salt to governments in the State of New York to keep winter roads and bridges safe. We were pleased to learn that your committees conducted a hearing September 27th on the implementation of the Procurement Stewardship Act and the procurement process employed by the State of New York. Ensuring the integrity of our institutions is an appropriate oversight role for government and we congratulate the State of New York for its efforts to increase public confidence in the process used to award business with the State.
Our members are concerned with recent changes in the bid questionnaires for the New York Office of Government Services and the New York Thruway.
We support amendments to the Procurement Stewardship Act (Section 163 of the State Finance Law) when it is reauthorized. Our recommended changes would streamline the questionnaires companies use for deicing salt bids with the State and local governments in New York. We believe that our suggested reforms would ensure greater competition in bids and provide efficient bid review while protecting New York taxpayers from disreputable suppliers.
The Salt Institute proposes the following changes to the bid questionnaires:
· The questionnaire should be directed at the division or business unit of the supplier that is producing or supplying the deicing salt. The current questionnaires ask for information from the legal entity that is supplying the deicing salt as well as its affiliates. Many of our members are multi-national corporations or affiliates of multi-national corporations with complex business structures. The current questionnaire requires them to produce information on businesses that are unrelated to deicing salt production (e.g. meat processing or chemical processing). Gathering this information is burdensome given the complexity and independence of business units within large companies. By applying this requirement to the business unit competing to be a vendor, OGS can be assured of getting pertinent information from the vendor doing business directly with the state, but allow would-be suppliers to complete the forms completely and accurately.
·
The questionnaire
should be limited to operations in the United States.
While the questionnaire language implies it is U.S. only, the language is
unclear. Limiting the breadth of the questionnaire to the U.S. would provide
sufficient information to judge the suitability of a vendor without imposing a
crushing administrative burden that would discourage potential suppliers and
lessen the competition to provide quality goods and services at the best prices
for New York taxpayers.
·
Subjective terms in
the questionnaire should be removed or replaced with objective terms.
Specifically, the Office of Government Services questionnaire asks suppliers to
disclose if they are or were under “investigation” for certain conduct. Because
there is no legal definition of “investigation”, suppliers are forced to
speculate on the meaning of this term. This concern would be alleviated if the
term was removed or replaced with an objective term such as “indictment or
conviction.”
· The questionnaires contain incorrect or vague references to laws and regulations. For example, the Salt Institute is unaware of any “public works” laws in the United States. Another example is the reference to “health laws, rules and regulations”. These broad, undefined phrases are terms of art and could be understood to apply to one or to hundreds of different laws, rules, or regulations in the United States. As a result, conscientious companies can have no confidence that they have complied fully as they seek to complete the questionnaire. These incorrect or vague references should be removed or each state or local agency should include a citation to a particular statute, rule, or regulation.
In summary, the Salt Institute believes that the Procurement Stewardship Act should be reformed to streamline bid questionnaires. This streamlining will provide lower cost and government efficiency and help us deliver to the State of New York competitive products that keep its roads and bridges safe while protecting taxpayers.
Sincerely,
Richard L.
Hanneman
President
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