As of Wednesday, July 1, the state Office of Procurement Management will list on its Web site requests for proposals (RFPs) for all state contracts for professional services covered by HB1260.

Service providers and others who have registered to have access to RFPs in the past will receive the information. But the OPM site also will have a public site with the contract information.

"We'll have a public solicitation board, so that anybody can go view what has been posted," OPM director Jeff Holden said. "We're working now to make it a public board."

The law requires the RFP postings to begin for new proposal solicitations beginning Wednesday. But some RFPs were already being added to the list made available to registered vendors. And agencies were expected to begin posting their RFPs on their own Web sites soon, Holden said.

Some had done that in the past, voluntarily. That changes with the law mandating competitive proposals for previously uncovered state professional services, with exemptions for legal, medical and certain other services.

"I'm kind of expecting far more (RFPs) than we've seen in the past, because in the past it was kind of a voluntary thing," Holden said.

Holden hopes to have a public board for viewing the contract RFPs and

related information available by July 1 at: www.state.sd.usboaopm.

The site includes a variety of information on contracts, including extensive lists of those involving the procurement of materials, equipment and services that have long required competitive.

All about House Bill 1260

What the law says:

No agency of the state may award or renew a contract for professional services exceeding $50,000 without complying with the procedures set forth in this act. Any agency seeking such professional services shall issue a request for proposals. The agency shall publish any request for proposals issued pursuant to this section on the electronic procurement system maintained by the Bureau of Administration. The request for proposals shall include the procedures for the solicitation and award of the contract.

What it covers:

For the purposes of this Act, the term, professional services, means services arising out of a vocation, calling, occupation, or employment involving specialized knowledge, labor, or skill, and the labor or skill involved is predominantly mental or intellectual, rather than physical or manual.

What it exempts:

(1) Services of such a unique nature that the contractor selected is clearly and justifiably the only practicable source to provide the service.

(2) Emergency services necessary to meet an urgent or unexpected requirement or when health and public safety or the conservation of public resources is at risk.

(3) Services subject to federal law, regulation, or policy or state statute, under which a state agency is required to use a different selection process or to contract with an identified contractor or type of contractor;

(4) Services for professional legal services and services of expert witnesses, hearing officers, or administrative law judges retained by state agencies for administrative or court proceedings.

(5) Services involving state or federal financial assistance passed through by a state agency to a political subdivision.

(6) Medical services and home and community-based services.

(7) Services to be performed for a state agency by another state or local government agency or contracts made by a state agency with a local government agency for the direct provision of services to the public.

(8) Services to be provided by entertainers for the state fair and other events.

What the public sees:

A register of proposals shall be prepared and maintained by any state agency issuing a request for proposals for a professional service contract. The register shall contain the names of any person whose qualifications were considered and the name of the person that was awarded the contract. Any professional service contract and the documentation which was the basis for the contract shall be public except for proprietary information which shall remain confidential. The qualifications and any other documentation of any person not issued a contract shall remain confidential.