BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1578
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Date of Hearing: May 14, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 1578 (Pan) - As Amended: April 28, 2014
Policy Committee:
AccountabilityVote:7-4
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Department of General Service (DGS) to
maintain an online database of personal service contracts.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires DGS to maintain an online database of personal
services contracts that is accessible, searchable, sortable,
and downloadable.
2)Requires the database to include the following information:
a) Description of the contract and services being purchased
b) Name of the department, agency, or division contracting
for the service.
c) Name of the contractor and all subcontractors.
d) Effective and expiration dates of the contract.
e) Annual amount paid to the contractor in past fiscal
years and the current fiscal year under the contract, by
funding source.
f) Annual amount proposed to be paid to the contractor in
the fiscal years beyond the approved budget.
g) Total projected cost of the contract for all fiscal
years, by funding source.
3)Requires the database information to be compiled in an annual
Service Contractor Expenditure Budget accompanying the
Governor's Budget, detailing total spending on total service
contracts for state government.
FISCAL EFFECT
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Likely millions of dollars in one-time costs to develop an
interim reporting system conforming to the bill's
requirements-including data elements not currently tracked and
data for contracts under $5,000 (see Comment #2)- prior to full
implementation of the state's new FI$Cal accounting system,
expected in July 2017. Alternatively, incorporating addition
data elements not currently contemplated as part of FI$Cal would
involve less, but probably still significant one-time costs.
Annual costs to prepare and publish the Service Contractor
Expenditure Budget would probably not be significant.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . According to the sponsor of this bill, American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME),
"taxpayers deserve access to information that would be
published under this bill."
2)Current DGS Efforts . DGS, through the State Contract &
Procurement Registration System (SCPRS), currently provides
publicly-assessable information regarding state contracts for
goods and services in excess of $5,000 in a downloadable,
searchable, and sortable format.
Data shown in these files covers some of the requirements
specified in this bill, including a description of the
contract and services being purchase, contracting state agency
and contractor, and beginning and ending fiscal years of the
contract. However, the SCPRS file does not include a list of
subcontractors and does not include contracts under $5,000,
which would be required under this bill.
3)Recent Legislation Already Implements Much of This Bill . SB
335 (Yee)/Statutes of 2013, requires the state to post in a
format that allows searching and sorting service contract
information specified in items (a) through (e) above (except
for the subcontractor components) for contracts in excess of
$5,000 upon the full implementation of the FI$Cal, the state's
new accounting system, at the end of 2017. In addition to this
information, SB 335 also requires posting the annual amounts
paid under the contract in prior fiscal year; total projected
AB 1578
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cost of the contract or maximum cost the contractor is
prohibited from exceeding for all fiscal years during which
the contract will be in effect; and the acquisition methods.
While this information is generally in line with the
requirements of this bill, there are some minor differences.
Specifically, this bill also requires the specification of
funding sources for contracts.
4)Need ? Given the information already made available by DGS and
the pending incorporation of this information into FI$CAL,
pursuant to legislation chaptered within the last year, the
need for additional legislation is not clear.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081