BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 522 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair AB 522 (Burke) - As Introduced February 23, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Accountability and |Vote:|9 - 0 | |Committee: |Administrative Review | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill requires the Department of General Services (DGS) and the Department of Technology (CalTech) to develop a standardized contractor performance assessment reporting system and to use this system when awarding all information technology (IT) AB 522 Page 2 contracts. FISCAL EFFECT: Special fund costs for DGS and CalTech to develop and implement the contractor assessment system, which would involve evaluating contractor proposals (in light of past performance) and evaluating performance upon conclusion of contracts, would be up to several hundred thousand dollars annually. The above cost is in part because, as currently written, the bill would cover all IT contracts for goods and services, regardless of dollar amount, including contracts for off-the-shelf software and equipment. According to DGS, in the 12 months between November 1, 2013 and October 31, 2014, the state awarded 12,000 unique contracts for IT goods and services. COMMENTS: Purpose. The author cites the state's past IT project difficulties in which several projects were completed late and over budget. "Assembly Bill 522 creates a report card for IT vendors and requires the state's procurement process to take into account a bidder's past performance when awarding projects," the author states. "This bill will ensure that California has an accurate picture of the vendor it is entering into contracts with by using the data collected by the performance assessment in addition to other procurement AB 522 Page 3 procedures to evaluate and award any future IT contract or project." According to CalTech, the department is already working to create an IT contractor performance system and plans to continue to work with IT vendors and DGS during its development. Several IT vendors and IT groups voiced support for the concept of establishing such a system at a July 2014 hearing of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review regarding IT procurement. Analysis Prepared by:Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081