Procurement Lobbying Act Policy and Procedures

It is the policy of the State University Construction Fund (the Fund) to comply with and seek contractor compliance with sections 139-j and 139-k of the State Finance Law.

Pursuant to those provisions of law, the Fund will designate person(s) who are the only staff that can be contacted relative to a procurement and will record all "contacts" by an offerer or its representative regarding the procurement. A "contact" is any communication with the Fund that a reasonable person would infer that the communication was intended to influence the procurement.

Information that must be recorded includes: the name, address, telephone number, place of principal employment and occupation of the person making contact; whether the person is retained or employed by the offerer; and whether the contact is an attempt to influence a specific procurement.

An impermissible "contact" is communication, other than the exceptions cited below, by the offerer, or its representative, with anyone other than the Fund's designated contact(s) for such procurement. Any Fund employee who becomes aware that an offerer has violated the provisions of a permissible contact during a procurement must immediately notify the Fund's Ethics Officer who shall investigate such incident.

Contacts exempt from requirements of the Act include:
a) submission of proposals;
b) submission of written questions to the designated contact when all written questions and responses are to be disseminated to all interested offerers;
c) participation in a bid conference or interviews;
d) negotiations subsequent to tentative award;
e) communications during bid protests or appeals.

Any offerer that knowingly and willfully violates the restrictions to permissible contacts shall be found non-responsible and shall not be awarded the procurement contract. Determinations of non-responsibility due to such violations shall be reported to the NYS Office of General Services (OGS). OGS shall maintain a list of offerers determined to be non-responsible due to such violations. Any subsequent determination of non-responsibility within four (4) years of a previous determination of non-responsibility based upon an impermissible contact shall result in the offerer being ineligible to submit a proposal or be awarded a procurement contract with any governmental entity, as defined in State Finance Law Section 139-j (1) (a), for a period of four (4) years from the second determination.

Prior to the award of a procurement contract, the Fund must include in its vendor responsibility review a determination of compliance with provisions of the Act including any disclosure of a previous violation of the Act within the previous four (4) years during any governmental procurement.