Eight companies are seeking a contract with the Bureau of Legislative Research to serve as a procurement consultant to help a legislative panel study the state's procurement laws, regulations and procedures, and then to recommend changes.
Two Arkansas companies were among those bidding.
The companies that submitted proposals include PCG Human Services of Boston; Civic Initiatives of Austin, Texas; Ikaso Consulting LLC of San Bruno, Calif.; and Calyptus Consulting Group Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., said bureau Director Marty Garrity.
The other companies that submitted proposals include Hogan Taylor LLP of Little Rock; CSP Management LLC of Batesville; Public Works LLC of Westchester, Pa.; and K.L. Scott & Associates LLC of Atlanta, Garrity said.
The deadline for companies to submit proposals to the bureau was 4:30 p.m. Friday. The request for proposals was issued July 21. A subcommittee co-chairman, Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, has said the cost for hiring a consultant won't be known until companies submit their proposals.
Neither the subcommittee's other chairman, Sen. Scott Flippo, R-Mountain Home, nor Eubanks could be reached for comment by telephone Friday about the number of companies that submitted proposals.
The review of procurement laws comes in the aftermath of skirmishing by some lawmakers and Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson's administration over various contracts. Those include a scrapped contract that the Department of Human Services proposed to have with an Indiana-based firm to run seven youth lockups, and the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery's approved advertising contract with CJRW.
As part of its rules adopted in May, the Legislative Council assigned to the Review Subcommittee a study of procurement laws, regulations and policies with a report to be presented to the council in December 2018, in advance of the 2019 regular session, according to the Bureau of Legislative Research.
The subcommittee was to look at the processes and requirements for requests for qualifications; responses to requests for proposals and for qualifications; and the impact of procurement processes on the legal, architectural, engineering, construction management and land surveying professions.
The subcommittee will review the consultants' proposals during its Sept. 8 meeting and then decide which consultants will provide verbal presentations to the panel during its Sept. 13 meeting, according to the bureau's request for proposals document. At its Sept. 13 meeting, the subcommittee will recommend which consultant it wants the Legislative Council's policy-making committee to hire during its Sept. 21 meeting.
Metro on 08/19/2017