1 Texas Administrative Code § 81.17 – Competitive Bidding Required

Except for the purchase of voter registration advertising and temporary staff the voter registrar shall submit bids for the purchase of items or services to be paid for with Chapter 19 funds according to the following guidelines:

(1) No competitive bids for individual purchases of less than $5,000 are required. However, the voter registrar shall take the steps necessary to insure that all charges are reasonable and competitive relative to the local market. (Note: A large purchase may not be divided into small lot purchases to circumvent the dollar limits established by this section. For example, expenditures for computer equipment to a single vendor that total more than $5,000 are subject to the competitive bid requirement and may not be split between printers/scanner/computers.)

(2) For purchases of $5,000 or more, competitive bidding procedures must be followed. Generally, a county must receive a minimum of three written bids from three different vendors stating the vendor’s name, complete mailing address, telephone number, and the amount of the bid. A copy of the bids as well as the selection documentation, including the solicitation and the scoring tools, must be maintained by the county and made available to the Agency upon request.

(3) If a purchase is through the Texas Procurement and Support Services (TPASS) cooperative purchasing programs for state contract purchasing for the State of Texas, bids are not required. Proper documentations must be submitted to indicate the type of procurement service used and the source for those services.

(4) Sole source vendor purchases and situations when the lowest bid is not accepted are discouraged. In rare instances when this type of purchase is required, a justification must be signed by the county purchasing authority and be made available to the Agency upon request.