STAND. COM. REP. NO.  309-14

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2471

 

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Economic Development & Business, to which was referred H.B. No. 2471 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROCUREMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to continue to support small business vendors while increasing government efficiency by increasing the threshold requiring compliance verification with all business laws in the State by a procurement officer for the small purchase method of procurement within the scope of the Hawaii Compliance Express.

 

     The Department of Budget and Fiscal Services of the City and County of Honolulu testified in support of this bill.  The Tax Foundation of Hawaii provided comments.

 

The Hawaii Compliance Express, launched in 2005, is an electronic system that allows vendors doing business with state or county agencies to quickly and easily obtain proof that they are compliant with all applicable laws.  By providing an online "Certificate of Vendor Compliance", Hawaii Compliance Express provides an expeditious method by which a vendor can furnish this proof to a contracting agency.  This single certificate eliminates the need to obtain individual hard copies of certificates from the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Taxation, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, thus saving the vendor time and money in the contracting process.

 

     When the Hawaii Compliance Express was initially established, a vendor had to provide proof of compliance to receive a contract in excess of $15,000.  Act 190, Session Laws of Hawaii 2011, reduced this amount to $2,500.  However, lowering this threshold affected state and county agencies, slowing the processing of smaller contracts.  Increasing the threshold to $5,000 will still provide economic opportunities to small businesses while allowing government agencies to operate more quickly and efficiently.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development & Business that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2471 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development & Business,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

CLIFT TSUJI, Chair