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irginia

C

apitol

C

onnections

, S

pring

2017

10

Public Procurement Reform is an area in which the Alliance

for Construction Excellence (ACE), has been active. Within

any proposed reform legislation, ACE has and will advocate for

inclusion of payment transparency provision in the legislation. The

transparency provision calls for the public body to post notices

to a website when a prime contractor is paid so subcontractors

can validate the payment prior to making legitimate demand for

payment. Payment transparency is considered good government and

good for businesses. ACE was successful with the inclusion of the

provision in the District of Columbia (DC) and hopes legislators

in Maryland and Virginia adopt similar procurement transparency

regulations.

Subcontractors got greater transparency after the DC City

Council passed the Procurement Integrity, Transparency, and

Accountability Emergency Amendment Act of 2016 on September

20, 2016. Since the Act’s passage, ACE has been working with

the District’s Office of Contracting and Procurement to help

implement a payment transparency system that will be most useful

to contractors. That system, a website that lists payments to prime

contractors, is now live.

DC Law requires primes to pay their subs within seven days

after receipt of payment from the owner. If you want to see if a prime

has been paid, go to DC Department of General Services (DGS)

website

( dgs.dc.gov )

and click on the Contracts & Procurement

link, then click

Contract Actions and the PDF will be at the bottom of the page.

To find a prime contractor, right click your mouse while on the

document. After selecting the search option from the menu, a box

should pop up in which you type the search word - such as the name

of the company. ACE will continue its effort to help improve the

system for contractors.

In Virginia, the Virginia DGS already has an internal web based

portal called eVA where much of the Department’s procurement

information is kept. The DGS plans to launch that portal on a

public domain so that anyone can access the information. In hope

of expanding the database beyond DGS contracts, the DGS is

working to have all state agencies and state universities join eVA.

Local governments will be invited by DGS to post payments. ACE

representatives recently participated in a webinar hosted by DGS

to demonstrate eVA. One of the many appealing features is that the

system provides a description and amount of all formalized change

orders for each contract. ACE applauds the Department’s efforts

and will continue to communicate with DGS to enhance eVA in

order to best serve the subcontractor community.

ACE representatives met with the Comptroller of Maryland’s

office in February to discuss payment transparency. It appears

unlikely that Maryland will be able to have a transparent payment

system like those described above in the near future. Maryland’s

information technology is too antiquated to accommodate the

industry’s needs at this time. ACE is encouraged that the Comptroller

is supportive of payment transparency and is willing to give it more

consideration when its technology is updated to do so.

D. L. “Ike” Casey, Executive Director ASA of Metro Washington

Procurement Transparency = Good Government + Good for Businesses

By D. L. “Ike” Casey

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Alliance for Excellence (ACE) leadership in Old City Hall, January 2017.

Photo by Thang Nguyen

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