The Maine Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee held a timely public hearing before on Wednesday to allow for input on a bill with bipartisan support aimed at increasing transparency and accountability regarding the state’s issuance of sole-source non-competitive contracts.
The proposed bill, LD 875 or “An Act to Increase Government Transparency in the Procurement of Goods and Services,” sponsored by Republican State Rep. David Boyer of Poland, comes after a devastating audit report published last week by Maine’s Office of the State Auditor revealed systemic procedural and oversight issues in the state’s use of the non-competitive bidding process.
State Auditor Matt Dunlap’s report found that more than $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2024 state contract payments were made under a system the audit describes as lacking basic supervisory oversight and controls.
[RELATED: Maine Audit Reveals Systemic $2.1 Billion Financial Mismanagement and Corruption Risk…]
As a result of Auditor Dunlap’s report, a group of Republican Maine state senators earlier this week sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting an investigation into the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) and its Office of State Procurement Services (OSPS).
Rep. Boyer’s LD 875 would require the Director of the Bureau of General Services within DAFS to preserve and make available on a publicly accessible website all records and documents related to the competitive bidding process, including notices of intent to waive competitive bidding.
This bill also directs the department to recover and publish past notices of intent to waive competitive bidding.
Those notices of intent to waive competitive bidding, or NOIs, contain procurement justification forms which explain why the state deems payment to a sole-source vendor as necessary are currently only publicly available for a seven calendar day period.
[RELATED: Mills’ Millions: Maine Taxpayers Foot Bill for Absurd No-Bid Contracts…]
“To give you an idea, if a member of the public wanted to keep a running tally of all these documents, they would have to effectively check the state’s website every couple of days to see it, and I’m not sure that’s the best way to structure it,” Rep. Boyer told the State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday.
“Maintaining and preserving these important documents is essential for government transparency,” Boyer said. “Our government must be good stewards of our tax dollars.”
Boyer then referenced some of the findings of Auditor Dunlap’s recent report, including that of 31 sole-source contracts reviewed, 16 lacked required documentation proving a “reasonable investigation” into alternatives, violating competitive bidding mandates under Maine law.
Members of the State and Local Government Committee agreed that it would helpful to have State Auditor Dunlap give a presentation at the bill’s work session to further explain the findings of his report.
The public hearing was held on Wednesday, April 2 before the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee.
Deputy Commissioner Anya Trundy, representing DAFS before the Committee, testified neither for nor against Boyer’s bill.
Trundy said that the vast majority of the documents encompassed by Rep. Boyer’s bill are already available for the public online, and that retention of those documents is handled by the Maine State Archives.
According to Trundy, due to the size and volume of bid proposals, the state’s website does not currently have the capacity to upload all of the files. She also cited privacy concerns in bid proposals related to trade secrets and personal identifiable information.
Trundy did admit a “shortcoming” in the department’s online self-service portal that should allow the public to search for contracts — namely that the current configuration requires the person searching for the contract to know specific information about the vendor or other contract details in order for a contract to be located.
Janet and her Marxist minions have not been good stewards of our tax dollars, our safety or our security. I am looking forward to Pam Bondi and Kash Patel putting the spotlight on these wicked shenanigans in Maine.