Albany County, NY Guidelines for Determining Responsibility of Bidders

Under current New York law, public contracts subject to competitive bidding must be awarded to the "lowest responsible bidder." In some instances, a low bidder may be a company with a pattern of violations of labor, occupational safety, environmental, criminal or other laws and a question has arisen as to whether such a company can be determined to be a "responsible" bidder under New York law. The statutes requiring competitive bidding of public contracts have been interpreted by the courts to authorize contracting agencies to examine the responsibility of contract bidders. It is in the County's best interests to determine and define the circumstances and practices which would disqualify bidders from the bidding process on the basis of a "responsibility" standard.

In evaluating the responsibility of a bidder for public contract, the responsible Albany County agencies shall give due consideration to the guidelines established in Executive Order No. 170.1, issued March 24, 1993, which shall include but not be limited to the following as credible evidence to establish a disqualification on the basis of a "responsibility" standard:

The lack of adequate expertise, prior experience with comparable projects or financial resources to perform the contract work in a timely, competent and acceptable manner.

Criminal conduct in connection with government contracts.

Disregard of the personal safety of employees, County personnel or members of the public.

Willful noncompliance with prevailing wage requirement of the Labor Law.

Any other Labor Law and Worker's Compensation Law violations.

Any criminal conduct involving violations of the Environmental Conservation Law or other federal or state environmental statutes or recurring civil violations of federal or state environmental statutes.

The failure of a bidder to demonstrate good-faith efforts to comply with applicable affirmative action statutes or guidelines.

The failure of a bidder to comply with federal or state statutes or regulations involving disadvantaged persons pursuant to Equal employment opportunity requirements.

The submission of a bid which is mathematically or materially unbalanced.

The submission of a bid which is so much lower than the agency's confidential engineers' estimate of the cost of, or anticipated bids for, the contract that it appears unlikely that the bidder will be able to perform the contract satisfactorily at the price bid.

Any other cause of so serious or compelling a nature that it raises questions about the present responsibility of a contractor or subcontractor, including, but not limited to, submission to a contracting agency of a false or misleading statement on a uniform questionnaire, or in some other form, in connection with a bid for or award of a contract or a request for approval of a subcontractor.

In addition to the factors specified above, contracting agencies may also give due consideration to any other factors considered by the contracting agencies to bear upon responsibility, including, but not limited to, any mitigating factors brought to the agency's attention by the bidder or proposed subcontractor.