BEP GOAL CHANGES
On March 23, 2021, Public Act 101-0657 was signed into law by the Governor. The Act affects the Business Enterprise Program (BEP) and IMSA’s responsibilities under the BEP Act as well as the Illinois Procurement Code. The most notable change in this Act is the increase to the State’s overall BEP goal from 20% to 30%. IMSA has, and continues to, support increasing our vendor diversity participation. The BEP participation goal applies to all fiscal year purchases. As we enter the final quarter of Fiscal Year 2022, this will be our final chance to help meet the 30% aspirational goal through our participation of working with BEP vendors. As you look to spend your remaining budget funds please keep in mind to include BEP vendors for those categories of products and services that you are looking to purchase. Another notable change in the Act is that the law now requires a ‘commitment to diversity’ to be one of three components in evaluating all RFP’s representing 20% of the technical points awarded in scoring criteria. The evaluation factors have been communicated to this office by the CPO-HE and will be shared with the assigned team members at such time an RFP solicitation requires evaluation.
CONTRACT RENEWALS
As we approach the end of our fiscal several departments have contracts that are coming due for renewal. Notification has been made to those departments informing them of such renewals. It is the goal of Procurement to have these renewal completed by June 1, 2022 and modifications will be made to allow for any purchase orders necessary for FY23 to be entered in advance. Coordination of those efforts will be communicated by Procurement to those departments that need FY23 Purchase Orders to be put in place. For those contracts that have assigned BEP goals, please keep in mind that Public Act 101-0657 adds Section 20-60(f) to the Illinois Procurement Code and provides that no vendor shall be eligible for renewal of a contract when that vendor has failed to meet the agreed upon goals in the vendor’s BEP Utilization Plan unless the State agency/university has determined that the vendor made a good faith effort towards meeting the contract goals and has issued a waiver or that the vendor is otherwise excused from compliance by the Chief Procurement Officer in consultation with the state agency/university.
