Committee approves comprehensive rewrite of state purchasing rules; ITN process removed

Valerie Bollinger, Administrator of the Division of Purchasing in the Department of Administration, told the House State Affairs Committee the division presented pending rules in Docket 808012401, "which is a rewrite of the chapter governing purchasing for the state."

Bollinger said the division revised the rules to reflect the legislature's prior rejection of provisions that authorized an invitation-to-negotiate or ITN process. "When we began our review [we] remove[d] the ITN process from rule as intended by the legislature," she told the committee, and the rewrite also sought to align rules with statutory authority and to streamline and clarify language. The division said it engaged in negotiated rulemaking, advertised the proposed rulemaking on agency websites, held a public hearing in November and provided a crosswalk between the rule changes and Idaho Code.

Committee members asked detailed questions about several substantive edits. Bollinger described changes to definitions (removing redundant terms and moving the definition of "tie responses"), and changes to delegation language to more closely match Idaho Code section 67-92-6. She said exemptions from competition were narrowed and given specific parameters in Rule 42 to reflect statutory intent that competition remains the default. A concrete example of an exempt purchase Bollinger offered was emergency hay purchases by the Department of Fish and Game following a wildfire to reduce wildlife-road collisions.

On procurement procedures, Bollinger explained the division removed or relocated language redundant with statute (for example, provisions about public bid openings), moved price-agreement rules into Rule 42 and simplified tie-response handling (now in Rule 81 subsection 6). She said language referencing the competitive negotiation process and ITNs was struck. Regarding award criteria, Bollinger explained that statutory language requiring award to "the lowest responsible and responsive bidder" remains in Idaho Code section 67-92-10 and that scoring systems used in requests for proposals to weigh quality as well as cost are already contemplated by statute.

Members asked about safeguards against improper negotiations or favoritism when discussions with bidders occur. Bollinger said negotiations require administrator approval, procurement staff typically are not program staff and challenges to procurement decisions occur but the division rescinds or corrects decisions when mistakes are found.

Representative Vito Barbieri moved to accept Docket 808012401 and praised the department's crosswalk and explanations. The committee approved the motion by voice vote and accepted the rules docket.