Bid-Rigging Act (H 6173, S 945)

While we have no position on the thrust of this bill, which attempts to prohibit bid rigging in state and local government contracts, and which also establishes severe criminal penalties for violations, we did strongly oppose a separate stand-alone provision that appears at the very end of the bill on Page 4 which amended Chapter 37-2 of the Rhode Island General Laws to criminalize a wide variety of procurement-related actions, many of which are already subject to administrative oversight. Specifically, this new section would create misdemeanor penalties for the violation of any provision in the state purchases chapter, which has 82 chapters and includes things like purchasing foodstuffs from a farm outside of Rhode Island (§ 37-2-8) and failure to "maintain a close and cooperative relationship" with state agencies (§ 37-2-14). As such, we urged deletion of this section.