A bill to revise certain provisions of Tennessee’s procurement code has been introduced in both the House and the Senate of the Tennessee General Assembly. The bill comes from the central procurement office with the Governor’s support and is expected to pass rather quickly. The legislation, if passed by both houses and signed by the Governor, will:

• Re-write the protest procedure statute (Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 12-3-512) to provide more detail with regard to a party’s standing to protest and to the calculation of the protest bond. The amount of a protest bond will be
  • 5% of the lowest bid or cost proposal,
  • 5% of the maximum or estimated maximum liability,
  • 5% of the estimated maximum revenue if the contract at issue will be revenue producing to the state, or
  • In the case of a no-cost contract, an amount to be determined by the chief procurement officer. Authorize the promulgation of rules by the procurement commission with regard to protest procedures.
• Authorize the Tennessee Department of General Services and Tennessee public institutions of higher education to participate in cooperative purchasing agreements relating to maintenance and management of real property and construction, engineering and architectural services. Construction materials will be able to be procured cooperatively with other states or local governments.
• Finally, rewrite the authority of the Chief Procurement Officer to authorize limitation of liability clauses in state contracts (Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 12-3-701).

The legislation is Senate Bill 95 (Norris) and House Bill 84 (McCormick).