§2177. Responsibilities of the commissioner of administration; training; reporting

A. The commissioner shall establish policies and procedures necessary for implementing the Louisiana Initiative for Veteran and Service-Connected Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Entrepreneurships and increasing the use of veteran and service-connected disabled veteran-owned small entrepreneurships in state procurements and public contracts. This shall include measures to ensure agency adoption and compliance with the requirements of this Chapter.

B. The commissioner shall develop standard contract clauses to be used by agencies in requests for proposals, advertisements, and solicitations for bids as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this Chapter.

C. The commissioner shall provide periodic training for relevant state employees to acquaint them with the requirements of the initiative and administrative law related thereto. Each agency shall ensure that at least one employee from that agency attends such training, in accordance with the training schedule to be established by the commissioner. The commissioner shall include information with respect to actual agency staff participation in such training as part of his annual report to the legislature as provided in Subsection E of this Section.

D. The commissioner shall conduct a training program at least semiannually to acquaint veteran and service-connected disabled veteran-owned small entrepreneurships with state procurement and public contract proposal and bidding practices. This shall include all state procurements which are governed by Chapter 10 of Title 38, Chapter 17 of this Title, and Parts XIII and XIII-A of Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950. The commissioner shall also secure the assistance of staff from the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs for veteran-specific information and data, and either the Department of Transportation and Development, Department of Natural Resources, or Department of Environmental Quality who are knowledgeable about state procurements undertaken pursuant to Chapter 10 of Title 38 and Parts XIII and XIII-A of Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, for the purpose of providing practical advice to veteran and service-connected disabled veteran-owned small entrepreneurships relative to procurements and public contracts governed by such law.

E. The commissioner shall annually prepare a report on the progress of the initiative in the most recently ended fiscal year, which shall be made available on the Internet and shall be delivered to the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance by the fifteenth day of January each year. The commissioner shall establish the reporting requirements for agencies which undertake procurements and public contracts independent of the division of administration, so that data from such agencies will be available to the commissioner for inclusion in this report. The commissioner's report shall include information which he deems useful to the legislature and the citizens of Louisiana with respect to analysis of the progress of the initiative, but at a minimum, it shall contain the following elements:

(1) The total number and dollar value of all agency contracts awarded to veteran and service-connected disabled veteran-owned small entrepreneurships in that fiscal year.

(2) The number of contracts that included a good faith veteran and service-connected disabled veteran-owned small entrepreneurship subcontracting plan.

(3) Information related to the graduation rates for veteran and service-connected disabled veteran-owned small entrepreneurships which in that year grew to exceed the size standards for certification eligibility. This information shall be developed from data provided to the commissioner by the Department of Economic Development.

F. The commissioner may adopt and promulgate rules and regulations he deems necessary for implementation and administration of the provisions of this Chapter, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act.

Acts 2009, No. 167, §1; Acts 2018, No. 585, §1, eff. May 28, 2018.