Legislative Issues
FICE CCNA Letter Campaign
FICE directs an educational letter campaign to educate public entities
regarding the Consultant’s Competitive Negation Act (CCNA). This
campaign is driven by FICE members who anonymously send Request for
Proposal (RFP) to Headquarters. This method ensures that the
government agency does not know which firm filed the complaint. FICE
staff in return corresponds with government officials in an effort
to educate them on the CCNA law and encourages them to amend their
RFP process.
In recent months, FICE has seen an increase of public entities asking
for preliminary fee proposals in a separate sealed envelope. The
law reads under 287.055 section 4(b) -”The agency may request,
accept, and consider proposals for the compensation to be paid under
the contract only during competitive negotiations under subsection
five”. So, even the act of requesting fees
(even though they claim it won’t be a factor for consideration)
is a violation since this phase of the RFP doesn’t involve “competitive
negotiations.” FICE has seen success in turning these requests
around and many entities have amended their RFP’s and returned
the sealed bids.
This has been a successful program and we encourage all members
to participate. FICE created a brochure and PowerPoint presentation
to educate both members and others who will be procuring professional
services. If you see an RFP that may be violating the CCNA
law, please e-mail Sam Hobbs at shobbs@fleng.org and
be sure to include a copy of the document.
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