By Mr. Fagan of Taunton, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3185) of James H. Fagan relative to the determination of the lowest eligible and responsible bidder for certain public construction contracts. State Administration and Regulatory Oversight.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

James H. Fagan

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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An Act relative to the determination of the lowest eligible and responsible bidder for certain public construction contracts.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1.  Section 44D of Chapter 149 of the General Laws, as appearing

in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out

subsection (6) and inserting in place thereof the following subsection:—

(6) In determining who is the lowest eligible and responsible

bidder as required by paragraph (2) of section forty-four A, the

awarding authority shall consider the information submitted by

the bidder in the update statement. The awarding authority may

also consider the evaluations of the bidder’s work obtained by or

furnished to the division of capital asset management and any

information furnished by the bidder in or after the application for

certification. Notwithstanding that a contractor may have been

certified by the division, an awarding authority, in connection

with a particular bid, may review the evaluations of the low bidder’s

work to determine whether the evaluations of comparable

projects performed by such low bidder establish that the bidder is

qualified to perform the work on the building project being bid

and may reject the bid if the evaluations do not establish that the

bidder is so qualified. Such awarding authority may also reject the

bid of a low bidder if the division has obtained or received two or

more unsatisfactory project evaluations of building projects of any

type completed by such low bidder within the past five years. If

the awarding authority determined that the low bidder is not

responsible and eligible, the awarding authority shall reject the

bidder and evaluate the next low bidder in accordance with this

section. The awarding authority shall give notice of such action to

the division of capital asset management.

In determining which is the most advantageous offer, the

awarding authority shall consider the information submitted by

the offeror on the update statement. The awarding authority may

also consider the evaluations of the offeror furnished to or

obtained by the bidder in or after the application for certification.