Senate Bill No. 560
(By Senators Buckalew, McKenzie and Ross)
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[Introduced February 16, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article twenty-two,
chapter five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to government
construction contracts; and providing that a successful
bidder shall furnish sufficient performance and payment bond
on a construction contract in excess of one hundred thousand
dollars.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article twenty-two, chapter five of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 22. GOVERNMENT CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS.
§5-22-1. Bidding required; government construction contracts to go to qualified responsible bidder; exceptions.
As used in this section, "the state and its subdivisions"
means the state of West Virginia, every political subdivision
thereof, every administrative entity that includes such a
subdivision, all municipalities and all county boards of
education.
The state and its subdivisions shall except as provided in
this section solicit competitive bids for every construction
project exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars in total cost.
Following the solicitation of such bids the construction contract
shall be awarded to the lowest qualified responsible bidder. who
The successful bidder shall furnish a sufficient performance and
payment bond on all construction contracts in excess of one
hundred thousand dollars: Provided, That the state and its
subdivisions may reject all bids and solicit new bids on said
project.
Nothing in this section shall apply to work performed on
construction or repair projects by regular full-time employees of
the state or its subdivisions, nor shall anything in this section
prevent students enrolled in vocational educational schools from
being utilized in construction or repair projects when such use
is a part of the students training program.
Nothing herein shall apply to emergency repairs to building components and systems. For the purpose of this paragraph,
emergency repairs means repairs that if not made immediately will
seriously impair the use of such building components and systems,
or cause danger to those persons using such building components
and systems.
Nothing herein shall apply to any situation where the state
or a subdivision thereof shall come to an agreement with
volunteers, or a volunteer group, whereby the governmental body
will provide construction or repair materials, architectural,
engineering, technical or any other professional services and the
volunteers will provide the necessary labor without charge to, or
liability upon, the governmental body.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that a
successful bidder on a government construction contract shall
furnish sufficient performance and payment bond on a construction
contract in excess of one hundred thousand dollars.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.