* Elgie Sims is one of the most powerful members of the Illinois Senate. And he didn’t achieve that by blustering his way into news stories. This sort of public grilling usually only comes when somebody is frustrated after years of behind the scenes work…
Lawmakers say Illinois-based businesses are getting work in other states but struggling to get business in their home state.
The state’s chief procurement officers appeared before the Illinois Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
State Sen. Elgie Sims Jr, D-Chicago, said Illinois-based companies get work in Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Texas, Florida and Georgia.
“We are hearing it across the board, ‘I can get business elsewhere and I can’t get business from my own home state.’ That’s a problem,” Sims said.
Sims said he is not hearing an effective procurement plan from any of the CPOs to help Illinois businesses succeed.
State Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said she would not be as gentle as Sims.
“I’m very frustrated. Actually, I’m just going to say it. I’m very furious. I see no fire under any of you all to try to address this situation,” Villanueva said.
Villanueva asked the CPOs to provide a timeline for solutions.
Capital Development Board CPO Kenneth Morris said he would present a timeline within a week, but the other three CPOs did not provide specific dates.
* Speaking of CBD…
Long‑delayed university repair funding is leaving campuses across the state with holes in their roofs, and in project budgets. […]
Funding for deferred university maintenance was a focus in a Senate committee hearing early this week. University officials told lawmakers that aging buildings have deteriorated so badly that some spaces can no longer be used.
Northern Illinois University President Lisa Freeman was among university officials to speak up about the degradation of multi-million dollar buildings as a result of ongoing delays in funding.
“NIU has not received $34 million of its allocated $52.9 million of capital renewal funds from fiscal year ’20, and this has caused the university to assume prolonged risks associated with aging infrastructure,” said Freeman. […]
Freeman said the 2024 plan to level an unusable dorm and build a Health Technology Center – backed by a record $40 million donation – has been stalled for two years, awaiting action from the state’s Capital Development Board, giving no reason why.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 1:57 pm:
Based upon my somewhat limited experience, state procurement staff are inculcated with an ethos they have to nitpick everything to make up for a real series of procurement gaffes, going back at least 50 years, to Thompson’s Downstate Campaign Chair working for a business that Thompson, once in office, excluded from competitive bidding.
- Make IL's Procurement Work Again - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 2:16 pm:
This four-head CPO system just does not work. No other state has a bifurcated procurement system like Illinois. It is time to totally undo this system where the CPO’s and their staffs lord over real life transactions and stop small businesses from getting into the State’s ecosystem. No checks, no balance…just inefficiency. Businesses spend $10k to pursue state work, just for the process to take 12 months to award…things do not even cost the same. DISMANTLE THE CPO SYSTEM and align the procurement code to a system that works–a procurement team responsible to call balls and strikes on the process. “Nice recommendations unfortunately did not implement? Negligence. And who was on this committee? EEC can still audit but something HAS TO GIVE. GOOD ON THOSE SENATORS FOR DECLARING ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
- Deep thoughts - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 2:23 pm:
the independence of the CPOs is both a blessing and a curse. It’s good to know that safeguards exist to prevent corruption in state procurement, but their independence typically insulates them from criticism or oversight. I’m happy to see these senators take them to task on this. Nobody should live in a bubble, even people in procurement. Doing business in Illinois is a real challenge, and those procuring should be able to talk freely with people from the business community, but nobody talks to anybody because our procurement people prefer to do what they want without being questioned.
- DuPage Dad - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 2:24 pm:
I like JB but am so very confounded why management in his admin has been so consistently lacking. Is it because he has deputies who don’t have experience in that? Procurement and capital budget management are not new elements of public administration. Please get it right.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 2:27 pm:
===very confounded why management in his admin has been so consistently lacking===
Part of the initial problem was that things were so bad to begin with. But he’s had more than 7 years to clean it up.
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 2:43 pm:
One/two words… BidBuy. What a relentlessly frustrating system for all involved.
- Deep thoughts - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 2:44 pm:
The admin does nothing with procurement because if something goes wrong, their fingerprints will be on it and a whiff of corruption would be detrimental to a presidential run. In fact, this is the reason they do or don’t do most things. It’s all political and about running for president.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 3:04 pm:
The CPOs office is independent from the Governor’s Office. The Governor’s Office could come out with some reforms to make the process easier but like it or not agencies have to answer to the CPO’s when doing procurements. And from personal experience I can tell you that it’s no walk in the park to deal with these people. The number of hoops you have to jump through just to do a simple procurement is ridiculous and there are some vendors who simply decline to do business with the state because of the number of things the state makes them do, not the least of which is to register in BidBuy and go through all of that hassle.
- Oklahoma - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 3:05 pm:
“I see no fire under any of you all” … A universal statement for all things related to this State’s procurement operation.
Why do procurement processes average longer than a state fiscal year? It is literally impossible to put an appropriation in a budget for a year and have that thing spent or accomplished in that fiscal year.
That seems definitionally unacceptable.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 3:17 pm:
My experience with the state was that BidBuy was useless. Procurement people never seemed to want to solve problems, only to create obstacles. One of the reasons I’m glad to be retired.
- Chrissie - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 3:18 pm:
I don’t know whether the procurement system or the professional licensing system is worse. These types of ineptitudes are examples of why government has a bad reputation as bureaucratic, slow and lacking common sense. Pull it together, guys.
- Merica - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 3:28 pm:
Generally, state agencies find a way to
buy what they want. They don’t buy stuff from chicago based companies, because state employee’s/managers are based in springfield and prefer doing business with companies that
are either based in central illinois or hire sales reps in central illinois
- Anon62704 - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 3:44 pm:
=I like JB but am so very confounded why management in his admin has been so consistently lacking.=
=The admin does nothing with procurement because if something goes wrong, their fingerprints will be on it and a whiff of corruption would be detrimental to a presidential run. =
CPOs are appointed by the EEC & confirmed by the Senate. How is this JB’s fault?
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 4:13 pm:
“One/two words… BidBuy. What a relentlessly frustrating system for all involved.”
As bad as BidBuy was, it was a walk in the park compared to the financial ERP (retired to avoid it).
- Grimlock - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 4:29 pm:
Between the lack of funding for public universities, state money for private colleges (capital funds, plus MAP), and now the push to offer bachelor’s at community colleges I can only assume that the Governor has decided to “cut bait” on the public universities.
- Thinking - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 4:34 pm:
I am only going to comment on CPO for General Services as that is my expereince. I agree this is not Governor’s fault as it is the CPO who is responsible for procurement oversight, but we haven’t seen Governor’s Office keen to address the systemic issues with the CPO and staff who go beyond checking whether the requirements of the statute are being followed. There are so many unwritten rules that CPO imposes on agencies and when agencies ask where in the law or rules it is written there are no answers and purchases get delayed.
- queenies - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 5:07 pm:
– I am only going to comment on CPO for General Services as that is my expereince. I agree this is not Governor’s fault as it is the CPO who is responsible for procurement oversight, but we haven’t seen Governor’s Office keen to address the systemic issues with the CPO and staff who go beyond checking whether the requirements of the statute are being followed. There are so many unwritten rules that CPO imposes on agencies and when agencies ask where in the law or rules it is written there are no answers and purchases get delayed. —
The problem is 33% the layers of laws the General Assembly has imposed on procurement and 66% the Governor’s agencies. At the core of procurement is determination of need, determination of budget, and determination of how to fill the need. The CPOs are not responsible for determining the need or available funds or conducting the procurement. They’re only responsible for overseeing the process and making sure the rules were followed. The process still happens at the agency level. The CPO has no oversight of the BEP process, the CEI process, or many other processes that are required as part of a procurement.
The CPOs have become the scapegoats for the agencies inability to timely plan for the future and decide what they need. The CPOs have no real authority over the agencies to tell them what to do and when to do it. For at least a decade the state has failed to properly and adequately plan for the future. The agency’s RFPs are often completely inaccurate or woefully fail to account for what’s actually available in the market.
- I.T. Guy - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 8:00 pm:
Glad to see someone speak up on this. When I approached my State rep about this she walked away as fast as she could.
- Odysseus - Thursday, Apr 9, 26 @ 10:41 pm:
The procurement story isn’t clear. Is the problem that no RFPs are being awarded? Or is there some other problem? What does “can’t get work in Illinois” mean in practice?
- CivicWhitaker - Friday, Apr 10, 26 @ 10:30 am:
Hell, I started my career in civic technology because of procurement. When I worked at IDES, the system I had was built in ‘75. When they bought a replacement in 2011, it made my job worse.
Since then, there’s been a lot of progress to derisk IT procurement - https://guides.18f.org/derisking/state-field-guide/
This was developed by 18F (former federal agency that got DOGE’d) - but their guide to break down contracts into little chunks and have staff that know how to steer it is still great advice.