A. The Procurement Code shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its purposes and policies.

B. All references in law to the Public Purchases Act [repealed] shall be construed to be references to the Procurement Code.

C. The purposes of the Procurement Code are to provide for the fair and equitable treatment of all persons involved in public procurement, to maximize the purchasing value of public funds and to provide safeguards for maintaining a procurement system of quality and integrity.

History: Laws 1984, ch. 65, § 2.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

The Public Purchases Act, referred to in Subsection B, was compiled as 13-1-1 to 13-1-27 NMSA 1978, and was repealed by Laws 1984, ch. 65, § 175, effective November 1, 1984.

Purposes. — The Procurement Code protects against the evils of favoritism, nepotism, patronage, collusion, fraud, and corruption in the award of public contracts. Planning & Design Solutions v. City of Santa Fe, 1994-NMSC-112, 118 N.M. 707, 885 P.2d 628.

Duty of fair and equitable treatment. — The duty of good faith and fair dealing in the bidding process required that the city abide by the strictures of the Procurement Code and the purchasing manual. Specifically, the criteria provided by the city were an implied contract that if any bids were accepted, the acceptance would be based on these criteria and no others. Planning & Design Solutions v. City of Santa Fe, 1994-NMSC-112, 118 N.M. 707, 885 P.2d 628.

Breach of implied contract to follow Procurement Code. — By unlawfully introducing, considering, and relying on a criterion not listed in the request, the city breached an informal contract that it would follow the Procurement Code and the purchasing manual in considering each bid. Thus, though no formal contract was ever concluded between the parties, the city's conduct was a breach of an implied contract for which damages will lie. Planning & Design Solutions v. City of Santa Fe, 1994-NMSC-112, 118 N.M. 707, 885 P.2d 628.

Licensed contractors only. — Reading the Procurement Code and the Construction Industries Licensing Act, Chapter 60, Article 13 NMSA 1978, together, it is clear that the legislature intended (1) that public contracts should be awarded only to licensed contractors and (2) that purchasing authorities should be relieved from the necessity of making an independent investigation into the qualifications and fiscal responsibility of a contractor who is not licensed at the time of bidding. Thus, the doctrine of substantial compliance does not apply to the requirement of 60-13-12B NMSA 1978 that a contractor have a valid license when submitting a bid on a public contract. BC&L Pavement Servs. v. Higgins, 2002-NMCA-087, 132 N.M. 490, 51 P.3d 533.