SECTION 20.562. Certification of Vendor Assessment

(a) Before a state agency may award a contract to a vendor, the agency's procurement director must review the process and all documents used by the agency to assess each vendor who responded to the solicitation. This requirement applies only to a procurement of goods and services to which Government Code, §2261.0525 applies.

(b) A state agency's procurement director may delegate to a person in the agency's procurement office the authority to review and certify the assessment process and documents under Government Code, §2261.0525(a) under the following conditions:

(1) the agency's procurement division has a documented system for ensuring the quality of the vendor assessment process, including the quality of documents used to calculate and record the scoring of vendors;

(2) the delegation is in writing; and

(3) the delegated person:

(A) is not the primary contract manager or contract developer for the contract;

(B) is in a position in the agency's procurement office that is at least equal to the position of contract manager;

(C) is a Certified Texas Contract Manager or Certified Texas Contract Developer under §20.133 of this title (relating to Training and Certification Program), holds a predecessor certification under a previous version of that rule, or is an attorney or certified public accountant licensed to practice in Texas; and

(D) has signed all conflict of interest or nepotism forms required for a contract developer for the particular contract.

Source Note: The provisions of this §20.562 adopted to be effective April 26, 2020, 45 TexReg 2566