Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
New Policy for Issuing Contracts
" Best Contract Award Policy"
November 2005

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has implemented a new policy for awarding contracts. This policy was announced by the Department of General Services and it allows General Services to award a construction contract in excess of $5M based on the following:

"Under the revised policy, .proposals must contain three sealed elements. First is a cost proposal; second, a technical proposal, which identifies the contractor's team and staffing plans, and verified compliance with safety, prevailing wage, and prompt payment requirements; and, third, a disadvantaged business enterprise proposal verifying affirmative action compliance."

This Evaluation Committee will award points based on the following: 60% for cost score; 30% for technical score and 10% for a disadvantaged business score. Any contractor who is not awarded the final contract, has no opportunity to review the process to determine if there was a miscalculation, if the submission of the winning contractor was deficient, et cetera. This new policy puts behind closed doors the whole process and prevents anyone from examining whether it was fair and equitable. Basically, they could deny the contract to the lowest bidder based on any reason including past performance, past claims, past contributions to the right party. This will stifle free competition. The Associated Builders and Contractors of Pennsylvania have filed suit to challenge this new policy which, in effect, takes it from the lowest responsible bidder standard to a "best value" which now would include many factors. This may not be good for your future contracts, especially if this policy filters down to School Districts, Townships, et cetera.

If you have any questions, please contact Thomas M. Guinan.