§ 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 13-7 ("Prisoner Made Goods") or chapter 40-9 ("Services for People who are Blind or Visually Impaired") of the general laws 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 subdivision 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 37-2.4-3(a), (b) and (c) 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.

History of Section. (P.L. 2011, ch. 244, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 261, § 1; P.L. 2012, ch. 415, § 7.)