LINCOLN- State lawmakers quickly advanced a bill Monday designed to avoid future multimillion-dollar mistakes in awarding state contracts. The proposal grew out of the failed contract with Saint Francis Ministries, which underbid its lone competitor by 40% in 2019 to obtain the contract to handle child welfare services in eastern Nebraska. Eventually, the contract was cancelled amid financial mismanagement and under-performance by Saint Francis.

State Sen. John Arch of La Vista, the speaker of the Legislature, said his LB461 would allow the state to discern whether a bid is “reasonable” and “responsible” and not just the lowest bid. The bill advanced Monday from first-round debate on a 45-0 vote.

The experience with Saint Francis, Arch said, illustrated “a huge red flag” in the state contract procurement process, as did some other contracts that experienced cost overruns and failure to deliver services.

Arch said that the state’s procurement statutes hadn’t been updated in 20 years and have placed too much emphasis on accepting the lowest bid. “This was a terrible, terrible, terrible lesson learned ,” said Fremont Sen. Lynne Walz of the Saint Francis contract. LB 461, Arch said, allows the state to reject a bid if it is deemed not reasonable or realistic.

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