Senate Bill No. 303 amends the Louisiana Procurement Code to expand the scope of cooperative purchasing agreements to include information technology services. The bill allows public procurement units to participate in, sponsor, conduct, or administer cooperative purchasing agreements for a variety of services, now explicitly including information technology services as outlined in the new legal language. The bill retains existing provisions that permit cooperative purchasing with other public procurement units, external procurement activities, or private procurement units, while also detailing specific types of contracts that may be included in these agreements.

Additionally, the bill introduces provisions that allow public procurement units to access and utilize existing information technology systems owned by external procurement activities without the need for a separate competitive procurement process, provided that the external procurement activity originally acquired the system through a competitive process. This change aims to streamline the procurement process for information technology services and enhance collaboration among public entities. The bill will take effect upon the governor's signature or after the designated time for gubernatorial action.

Statutes affected:
SB303 Original: 39:1702(A)(1)