STAND. COM. REP. NO 493

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1357

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 1357 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROCUREMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the procurement officer of every governmental body to attend initial training by the State Procurement Office and regular follow-up training as determined by the State Procurement Office.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Procurement Office, Department of Transportation, Building Industry Association of Hawaii, Ulupono Initiative, and Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund.

 

     Your Committee finds that procurement training is essential to ensure that all procuring agencies apply and interpret the procurement code with consistency.  Hundreds of personnel conduct or participate in procurements each year.  To be effective, procurement training must be provided to all personnel conducting or participating in procurement, including Deputy Attorneys General who are responsible for providing legal advice on procurement-related issues.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the State Procurement Office's current training database reflects the number of individuals who have attended trainings since 2006 but does not provide information regarding those who are active or who have conducted procurement.  To efficiently provide training to the hundreds of individuals involved in the procurement process, a learning management system may be necessary to target particular roles, provide prompt feedback to users, and report attendance, test results, and progress to supervisors and the State Procurement Office.  To comply with mandatory training requirements, an additional position within the State Procurement Office is needed to develop and implement a training program.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the timeframe during which initial training is mandated from "within sixty days of being appointed or named to the position of procurement officer of any governmental body" to "prior to authorizing any procurement";

 

     (2)  Deleting language that allows a procurement officer to be granted permission from the State Procurement Office to be excused from follow-up training;

 

     (3)  Inserting language appropriating funds to the State Procurement Office for the purpose of acquiring a learning management system and providing one full-time equivalent position to develop and implement a procurement training program;

 

     (4)  Making the appropriation effective on July 1, 2015; and

 

     (5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1357, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1357, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Government Operations,

 

 

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair