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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 22, 2014 03:41 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Anthony H. Williams |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | IFO Certification of Legal Service Procurement |
| In the near future, I will be introducing legislation aimed at preventing the practice of awarding no-bid contracts to law firms for services that can be performed by state employees. Last year alone $32.6 million in taxpayer money was funneled to well-connected firms to defend the Commonwealth’s interests in a variety of legal disputes. Often, the firms hired have made sizable political campaign contributions to certain members of the Executive Branch, feeding the appearance of pay-to-play that erodes the public's confidence in government. The Office of the General Counsel (OGC), whose mission is “providing the Governor and the Executive Branch with expert, responsive, practical and cost-effective legal services necessary to support the administration of Pennsylvania's government for the benefit of the public," employs nearly five hundred lawyers and scores of legal assistants and interns. Yet in many cases, the defenses of major policies such as voter identification and same-sex marriage are contracted to outside counsel, leading many citizens to question the role of OGC and other state-employed attorneys. My legislation would amend the procurement code to require OGC, as well as the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of the Auditor General, and the Treasury Department to submit a written statement to the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) stating the reasons why the selected firm is solely capable of providing the particular legal service. IFO would have to authority to accept the reasons and certify the request, require that the work be competitively bid, or require the work be performed by state employed attorneys. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. If you have any questions, you can contact Kyle Miller at kmiller@pasenate.com or (717)787-5970. |