Lam pointed to one pre-pandemic incident where state transportation officials used the emergency procurement process to address empty vending machines at a state rest stop. One of the changes made by the legislature in 2022 was to require emergency procurements to be reported to the board in 15 days.Īnd while the 2022 law tightened the definitions of emergency procurement, it also created a new expedited process meant to speed up contracts that aren’t exactly emergencies. In lieu of the typical oversight and vote by the three-member Board of Public Works, departments are required to report emergency contracts in excess of $50,000 to the board within 45 days. Those regulations allow for the waiver of some government oversight provisions. State law allows agencies to speed up sometimes lengthy procurement processes. States found themselves in bidding wars not only against each other but in some cases other countries that were also short on supplies. Many items including ventilators, personal protective equipment - masks, gowns, gloves and face shields - and tests were hard to find.
The Department of General Services was tasked early with assisting state departments including the Department of Health, in finding and purchasing supplies and equipment during the pandemic. The findings were similar to a review conducted by state auditors in 2021. The findings in the May 2023 report focused on purchases made during Republican Gov. I think we probably did as strong of a job as we could to put proper limitations in place, to clean up a broken procurement system, and to ensure that there’s better reporting and overall oversight back to the legislature and Board of Public Works.”Īuditors found the Office of State Procurement within the Department of General Services did not always comply with state emergency procurement regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Is it airtight to ensure that those things would never happen again?” asked Lam. Departments may find other ways to bypass laws meant to make government contracting fair and transparent. Still, Lam said the ability to bypass the changes made in 2022 leaves an open question. Is it airtight when it comes to being able to ensure that none of the mismanagement and poor oversight that occurred before could ever happen again? I think we’ve greatly limited the circumstances that might happen.”
“So did the legislation that we passed previously help strengthen some of the requirements of oversight? I think so. “Certainly, part of the challenge is that, by nature, things that are an emergency are intended to bypass a lot of the routine checks that would be in place,” said Lam.
Lam (D-Howard and Anne Arundel) said the report provides more detail of a problem highlighted in a 2021 audit that triggered lawmakers to tighten state law. The Office of Legislative Audits found that the Office of State Procurement within the Department of General Services skirted some record-keeping requirements and failed to provide timely notification on millions of dollars in contracts. The Senate co-chair of the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Evaluation Committee said changes to state procurement law will likely prevent future mishandling of emergency contracts, such as those during the recent COVID-19 pandemic identified in a recent report by the Office of Legislative Audits.
#MARYLAND JUDICIARY PROCUREMENT FREE#
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