S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
10254
I N A S S E M B L Y
May 15, 2024
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Jackson) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations
AN ACT to amend the state finance law, in relation to the debriefing of
certain contracts
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Paragraph c of subdivision 9 of section 163 of the state
finance law, as amended by section 2-b of part F of chapter 57 of the
laws of 2016, is amended to read as follows:
c. Where provided in the solicitation, state agencies may require
clarification from offerers for purposes of assuring a full understand-
ing of responsiveness to the solicitation requirements. Where provided
for in the solicitation, revisions may be permitted from all offerers
determined to be susceptible of being selected for contract award, prior
to award. Offerers shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with
respect to their opportunity for discussion and revision of offers. A
state agency shall, upon request, provide a debriefing to any unsuccess-
ful offerer that responded to a request for proposal or an invitation
for bids, regarding the reasons that the proposal or bid submitted by
the unsuccessful offerer was not selected for an award. The opportunity
for an unsuccessful offerer to seek a debriefing, AND THE AVAILABILITY
OF A WRITTEN EXPLANATION, shall be stated in the solicitation.
(i) A debriefing shall be requested by the unsuccessful offerer within
[fifteen] THIRTY calendar days of release by the state agency of a
notice in writing or electronically that the offerer's offer is unsuc-
cessful.
(ii) Such notice shall be provided to all unsuccessful offerers by the
state agency for the specific procurement.
(iii) The state agency, upon a request made within [fifteen] THIRTY
days of release of the written or electronic notice from the unsuccess-
ful offerer for a debriefing, shall schedule the debriefing to occur
within a reasonable time of such request. Debriefings shall be conducted
by the state agency with the unsuccessful offerer in-person, provided,
however, the parties may mutually agree to utilize other means such as,
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14018-03-4
A. 10254 2
but not limited to, by telephone, video-conferencing or other types of
electronic communications. State agency personnel participating in the
debriefing discussion shall have been involved with and knowledgeable
about the procurement and the evaluation and selection of the successful
offerer or offerers.
(iv) Such debriefing shall include, but need not be limited to: (A)
the reasons that the proposal, bid or offer submitted by the unsuccess-
ful offerer was not selected for award; (B) the qualitative and quanti-
tative analysis employed by the agency in assessing the relative merits
of the proposals, bids or offers; (C) the application of the selection
criteria to the unsuccessful offerer's proposal; and (D) when the
debriefing is held after the final award, the reasons for the selection
of the winning proposal, bid or offer. The debriefing shall also
provide, to the extent practicable, general advice and guidance to the
unsuccessful offerer concerning potential ways that their future
proposals, bids or offers could be more responsive. PROVIDED, HOWEVER,
THAT AN UNSUCCESSFUL OFFERER MAY ADDITIONALLY REQUEST A WRITTEN EXPLANA-
TION COMPARABLE TO SUCH DEBRIEFING TO BE PROVIDED BY MAIL OR ELECTRONIC
MAIL, WHICH THE STATE AGENCY SHALL PROVIDE WITHIN SIXTY DAYS OF THE
OFFERER'S REQUEST FOR A WRITTEN EXPLANATION.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
have become a law; provided, however, that the amendments to subdivision
9 of section 163 of the state finance law made by section one of this
act shall not affect the repeal of such section and shall be deemed
repealed therewith.