SENATE COMMUNITY AND URBAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 2572

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JULY 16, 2020

      The Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 2572.

     As amended, this bill would allow a contracting unit under the “Local Public Contracts Law,” P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.), to designate its municipal finance officer, county finance officer, or county purchasing official to serve as a purchasing agent only if the person is a certified municipal finance officer, a certified county finance officer, or a certified county purchasing official, and the person will perform the actual day to day work of a purchasing agent.  The bill also provides that the work experience required for certification as a qualified purchasing agent must be performed under the direct supervision of a purchasing agent, or, in the case of a certified municipal finance officer, certified county finance officer, or certified county purchasing official, two years of full-time governmental experience performing duties relative to those of public procurement.  Additionally, the bill would specify the content and length of the courses an individual must complete to earn a qualified purchasing agent certificate.

     Under the Local Public Contracts Law, a contracting unit that designates a holder of a qualified purchasing agent certificate as its purchasing agent may award contracts without public advertising at a higher threshold amount than a contracting unit that designates as its purchasing agent a person who does not hold a qualified purchasing agent certificate.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments provide that:

· when a person who is named purchasing agent by virtue of also being a county or municipal finance officer or county purchasing official, that person must perform the day-to-day work of a purchasing agent;

· any person, other than a county or municipal finance officer or county purchasing official, must have two years of experience in purchasing under the direct supervision of a purchasing agent in order to meet the experience requirements for designation as a purchasing agent;

· a certified municipal finance officer, certified county finance officer, or certified county purchasing official, must have two years of full time governmental experience performing duties relative to those of public procurement, but this work experience does not have to be under the direct supervision of a purchasing agent;

· the coursework that is required of any person, other than a county or municipal finance officer or county purchasing official, to qualify to sit for the purchasing agent examination will be determined by regulations promulgated by the Department of Community Affairs; and

· there no longer be required the series of training courses in public procurement.