Summary:

 House Bill 509 (HB 509) enacts the Transparency in Government Contracting Act (Act); requires certain procedures for providing the public with information on government contracts; provides for the enforcement of the Act; and provides for a directory of information within the sunshine portal.  

Legislation Overview:

 House Bill 509 (HB 509) enacts the Transparency in Government Contracting Act (Act).

Definitions are provided for terms such as “contract,” “protected information,” and “government agency.”

A government agency must: (1) make available the invitations for bids, requests for proposals, requests for information or other solicitations relating to a contract of that government agency no later than one week after soliciting interested parties for a contract; (2) update the web pages associated with the Act as new information is provided or received but at least monthly, including information from the previous month or year, where relevant, for comparison purposes and maintain the web page as the primary source of public information about the contractual activity of the government agency that is related to that Act; (3) include the name and contact information of the custodian of records of the government agency on the web page associated with the Act; (4) provide the Department of Information Technology (Department) with a uniform resource locator or working link to the web page required by the Act. At any time that the uniform resource locator or link is altered or changed, the government agency must update the Department and make available any information relating to emergency or sole source contract of the government agency. 

Nothing in this section should be construed to require the government agency to make available any protected information.

The provisions of the Act are knowingly and willfully violated, the contract at issue is to be presumed invalid. 

All provisions of the Act are to be enforced by the Attorney General or by the district attorney in the county of jurisdiction. However, nothing in that Act may prevent an individual from independently applying for enforcement through the district court. 

Section 10-16D-3 NMSA 1978 is amended to read: 

The Department, with the Department of Finance and Administration, is to develop, operate and maintain a single internet website that is free, user-friendly, searchable and accessible to the public, known as the "sunshine portal", to host the state's financial information for the purpose of governmental transparency and accountability to taxpayers. 

No later than October 1, 2010, the Department must create the architecture and the information exchange process for the collection and electronic publication of the state's financial information. 

C. No later than July 1, 2011, the sunshine portal must be available for public access and include updated information as required.

The sunshine portal must provide, at a minimum, access to the following information: 

(1) the state's cash balances by account or fund; 
(2) a monthly summary of the state's investment accounts; 
(3) annual operating budgets for each state agency with monthly expenditures by category; (4) contracts that a state agency enters into for the lease, sale or development of state land and state contracts that have a total contract price of more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), naming the recipient of the contract, the purpose of the contract and the amounts expended. 
(4) No later than January 1, 2017, the information provided must also include: (a) the name of the recipient of the contract; (b) the purpose of the contract; (c) the amounts expended on the contract; (d) a copy of or an internet web site link to a copy of the contract document, including amendments; and (e) a copy of or an internet website link to a copy of a resident certificate used in the award of a contract; 
(5) the revenue that the state received in the preceding month by source, such as type of tax, fee, fine, administrative fee or other collection category; 
(6) special appropriations received outside the general appropriation act by each state agency and the purpose of those appropriations; 
(7) approved budget adjustment requests by state agency and affected budget category; 
(8) quarterly consensus revenue estimates; 
(9) reversions and cash balances by state agency and fund; 
(10) appropriations for capital projects, identified by project location, type of project and funding source; 
(11) a directory of all employee positions, other than exempt employee positions, identified only by state agency, position title and salary; 
(12) a directory of all exempt employee positions, identified by state agency, position title, salary and the name of the individual that holds the position; 
(13) information relating to local education providers compiled and published by the Public Education Department; 
(14) a link to an open meeting tracker website upon which each state agency shall post open meetings scheduled for the current month and the next month;
(15) a link to the website maintained by the regulation and licensing department for the purpose of accessing information relating to occupational licenses; 
(16) a link to the state auditor's [web site] website for the purpose of accessing financial audits; 
(17) a link to New Mexico's statutes; 
(18) a link to the New Mexico Administrative Code; 
(19) a link to the secretary of state's websites for lobbyist regulation; 
(20) an annual summary within three months after the end of the fiscal year, or as soon thereafter as the information becomes available, of the state's fiscal health, including the state budget, revenues and expenditures for the previous fiscal year and projected revenues and operating budgets for the current fiscal year; 
(21) a directory of the uniform resource locators or links corresponding to each government agency provided to the department as required by the Act; and 
(22) additional information, as required by rule of the Department of Finance and Administration, that will assist the public in understanding state government operations and the use of taxpayer dollars. 

State agencies must provide updated financial information as frequently as possible but at least monthly. 

The Department must update the website as new information is received but at least monthly, include information from the previous month or year, where relevant.



 

Current Law:

 The Sunshine Portal is the official transparency and accountability portal for New Mexico state government, providing a window into government spending, budgets, revenues, employees, contracts and more. There is currently no law or resource specific to government contracts.