Lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee revised a bill pushed by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to require the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) to study state contracting, requiring an outside consultant to be hired at a cost of $950,000.
The provision was among several changes made to a bill OPM sought to combine the Connecticut Port Authority with the Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) – a bill the CAA was particularly keen on, but would have possibly brought the Port Authority, which has faced a slew of issues related to its redevelopment of the State Pier, into the fold of another quasi-public that has not faced such controversy. That proposal was removed from the bill.
The study provision was made in response to Connecticut nonprofits raising concerns that “the contracting system is wrought with inefficiencies that result in contract delays, which then results in payments to contractors being delayed.” The payment delays mean that nonprofits sometimes must tap into their lines of credit or their reserves to continue services, according to the Joint Favorable Report.
Among the issues that would be examined by the consultant is whether agencies have enough staff for contract drafting and process, identify complications in state contracting procurement and payments, and determine if it is feasible to allocate previous year funds to nonprofits and contractors “to sustain operation of existing programs.”
Since OPM does not have the staff to conduct such an analysis and report, the work will have to be contracted out to a consultant at an estimated cost of $950,000, according to the fiscal note.
However, it is also a job that could potentially be handled by the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB), which the legislature decided to fully fund in 2022 at a cost of $450,000 per year and is now fully staffed. The SCSB studies and investigates state contracting practices and has been trying for years to see some of their policy suggestions be put into place, including creating a central procurement office to address inefficiencies in state contracting and a lack of contracting knowledge in state agencies as more experienced agency staff retire.
However, the SCSB has been prevented from holding their regularly scheduled meetings by SCSB Executive Director Greg Daniels, a Lamont appointee, who unilaterally canceled the board’s meetings because Lamont has not yet appointed a new chairman of the board – a move contradicts past practice and has created a rift between board members and Daniels.
Reached for comment, OPM spokesman Chris Collibee said OPM doesn’t know why they are being tasked with conducting the study as opposed to another agency or even the General Assembly itself, and notes that not all state contracting is done by agencies under OPM’s budget.
“The General Assembly has a role to play in overseeing state contracting by holding hearings, requesting information, convening stakeholders, and designing solutions to any perceived issues in contracting,” Collibee wrote in an email. “The legislature could be supported in any such efforts by its own considerable staff.”
Gian-Carl Casa, head of the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance says that waiting on contractual payments from state agencies can sometimes “take months.”
“Too often the time spent waiting for state approvals means community nonprofits cannot provide services on behalf of the state to vulnerable people,” Casa wrote in an email. “This provision asks the state to review its systems so they can improve, which would be good for the state agencies as well as underfunded nonprofits and the people they serve.”
The move to study state contracting comes not only following nonprofit complaints about payment processing but also at a time when the legislature is contending with a budgetary crunch effectively killing bills that come with even moderate fiscal notes.
Majority Democrats are looking to preserve last year’s budget while using remaining American Rescue Plan dollars to fill gaps, while Republicans have issued their own budget adjustment proposals that include cuts to some programs and increased funding for education and nonprofits.
There was little comment on HB 5047 when the Appropriations Committee passed the bill with a 45-7 vote, on a day when the committee became bogged down in a debate over whether the term “mother” or “birthing person” should be included in a separate piece of legislation.
The bill also includes creation of a financial oversight board for Connecticut’s higher education system, re-amortization of pensions for judges, changes to state employee vacation time, and increasing the annual Small Town Economic Assistance program grant.
Was this article helpful?
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
