Bill Text: HI HR33 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Small Purchase; Hawaii Public Procurement Code; Study; Department of Accounting and General Services; State Procurement Policy Board

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-17 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Creagan, Fukumoto Chang, Hashem, Luke, Souki, Tokioka, Ward excused (7). [HR33 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2015-HR33-Introduced.html

---

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	33
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting a study regarding the need to increase the dollar threshold that determines whether a small purchase is exempt from small purchase procurement procedures.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the Legislature enacted the Hawaii Public Procurement Code in 1993 to provide for fair and equitable treatment of all persons dealing with the procurement system, foster broad-based competition among vendors while ensuring accountability, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and efficiency in the procurement process, and increase confidence in the integrity of the system for expenditure of public funds; and

 

WHEREAS, under current law, small purchase procurements of $25,000 to less than $250,000 are subject to rule-based small purchase procurement procedures, while small purchase procurements of less than $25,000 are exempt from these procedures; and

 

WHEREAS, established in 1997, the foregoing dollar thresholds are out of touch with the current cost of goods, services, and construction, which have greatly increased and continue to escalate; and

 

WHEREAS, inflation is only one of many factors contributing to escalating costs, and $25,000 in 1997 dollars had the same buying power as $36,735 in 2014 dollars, due to inflation alone; and

 

WHEREAS, accordingly, an increase of the small purchase procurement dollar thresholds is overdue and clearly advisable to ensure fulfillment of the Legislature's stated intent regarding small purchase procurements, namely, to ensure that small purchases be simple to procure and administer while providing for as much competition as is practicable; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, that the State Procurement Policy Board is requested to study:

 

(1)  How the cost of goods, services, and construction have escalated since 1997, considering inflation and other factors; and

      

(2)  With respect to the dollar threshold that determines whether a small purchase is subject to small purchase procurement procedures or exempt from these procedures, and given the Legislature's intent that small purchases be simple to procure and administer while providing for as much competition as is practicable:

 

(A)  To what amount should this dollar threshold be increased to ensure, in light of evident escalating costs, that the Legislature's intent in setting the threshold at $25,000 in 1997 continues to be fulfilled; and

 

(B)  With such an increase of the dollar threshold, what additional safeguards, if any, should be implemented to ensure efficiency, transparency, and accountability in exempt small purchase procurements, including, for example, requiring each purchasing agency and department to include in its annual report an itemized list of exempt small purchase procurements made; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the State Procurement Policy Board is requested to submit a report of its findings, recommendations, and actions to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the commencement of the Regular Session of 2016; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Comptroller and the chairperson of the State Procurement Policy Board.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Small Purchase; Hawaii Public Procurement Code; Study; Department of Accounting and General Services; State Procurement Policy Board