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State Posts Emergency Procurement Details After Legislators Squawk

The site lists emergency state procurements over $500,000 related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; awardees are listed alphabetically by company name.

The state has stood up a website that catalogs emergency procurements over $250,000 — including IT goods and services — that are related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The website, titled “Released COVID-19 Response Contracts,” was created after state lawmakers urged more transparency from Gov. Gavin Newsom in the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other COVID-related goods and services in the weeks since he declared a state of emergency March 4. It lists contracts alphabetically by vendor name; it’s not limited to IT goods and services.

“As the state has scrambled to secure medical supplies, lawmakers have questioned whether Newsom’s administration is sufficiently vetting contractors and being open about what the contracts entail,” CalMatters reported Tuesday. State legislators on Friday pushed back on Newsom over some awards of non-competitive contracts. The state Legislative Analyst’s Office has also cautioned the Legislature about giving the governor too much leeway in spending and to “guard its constitutional role and authority.”

“The goal of this page is to allow Californians to monitor state spending and know where their tax dollars are going,” the new Web page says. “It is not meant to be a full accounting of ALL state expenditures.” It refers those seeking more comprehensive spending data to a website of the Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal), which serves as the state’s accounting, budget, cash management and procurement IT system.

The site’s contents are undergoing “remediation” (making content accessible to people with disabilities) by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CalOES).

Earlier this month, Techwire looked at seven emergency, non-competitive contracts awarded for IT goods in excess of $500,000, as listed by FI$Cal. The chart accompanying this story lists the five such $500,000-plus contracts for IT services awarded since March 4.

Dennis Noone is Executive Editor of Industry Insider. He is a career journalist, having worked at small-town newspapers and major metropolitan dailies including USA Today in Washington, D.C.