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B. Maintenance Contracts
1. Districts process contract execution when bonding requirements exist. Three
districts (San Antonio, Brownwood and Bryan) have been used as "pilots" for
studying the impact of handling the execution of locally let maintenance
contracts including verifying that bond requirements have been met. The results
of these pilot studies have indicated that this task can successfully be
transferred to the districts from Austin headquarters. Allowing the districts to
perform this task decreases the time between letting and contract award by
approximately two weeks. While support in the department exists for making this change, it should be
noted that:
1) Districts must have proper training for handling these duties.
2) They must have adequate personnel. This is of special concern since
districts’ authority to let contracts locally has increased from contracts below
$100,000 to contracts below $300,000. This means more locally let contracts. Status: This transfer of responsibility will be optional at first for the
districts. Headquarters can continue handling some or all of this work until
districts have adequate training and personnel. 2. Proposed debarment process for maintenance contractors. Currently, performance bonds are only required on contracts of $100,000 or more.
Therefore, on many contracts (those less than $100,000) if the contractor is
declared in default, the districts must perform the work or proceed to re-let.
This not only takes time, it also costs the department money. If a maintenance
contractor defaults on a contract (bonded or not), the department may have them
debarred. This prohibits the contractor from bidding on state work for one year. While it is not in the department’s interest to have undesirable contractors bid
on projects, debarment can be very damaging for the contractor. However, at
present, TxDOT only has the option to debar a maintenance contractor for one
year maximum, or risk having the contractor be low bidder on other projects and
again perform undesirably. Since the department’s primary objective is to have work performed, it may be
advisable to have another option in dealing with "problem" contractors and to
standardize the justification for debarment. The department is currently in the
process of reviewing its debarring procedures and plans on addressing necessary
changes with the Texas Transportation Commission. Status: Department staff is currently drafting a proposal for the Commission’s
consideration that would allow the department to reduce a maintenance
contractor’s bidding capacity by fifty percent before seeking a debarment. Also,
the department could debar a contractor for a longer period in cases of repeated
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