Creates the "Interstate Technology Collaboration Act" to provide for use of cooperative purchasing for information technology system procurement. (gov sig) (RE SEE FISC NOTE GF EX See Note)

Senate Bill 303 amends R.S. 39:1702(A)(1) of the Louisiana Procurement Code to expand the scope of cooperative purchasing arrangements available to public procurement units. The bill adds information technology services to the list of items and services that may be procured through cooperative purchasing agreements. Additionally, it creates a new category of cooperative purchasing arrangement whereby a public procurement unit may access and utilize an existing information technology system owned by an external procurement activity in exchange for payment of a share of the system costs. The legislation further provides that a public procurement unit entering into such an arrangement with an external procurement activity shall not be required to conduct a separate competitive procurement process, provided the external procurement activity originally acquired the system through a competitive procurement process.

The practical effect of this legislation is to streamline information technology system procurement for Louisiana public procurement units by allowing them to leverage existing systems already acquired by external procurement activities without undergoing separate competitive bidding. This particularly benefits smaller municipalities, school boards, and other local public entities that may lack the resources or technical expertise to conduct independent information technology procurements. State agencies and larger procurement units can similarly access shared systems through this mechanism. The exemption from competitive procurement requirements reduces administrative burden and procurement timelines for participating units, though only when the underlying system was originally procured competitively by the external procurement activity.

This amendment operates within the existing cooperative purchasing framework established in R.S. 39:1702(A), which governs how Louisiana public procurement units engage in joint procurement activities. The bill maintains the foundational requirement that any cooperative purchasing arrangement must be entered into pursuant to an agreement between the participating parties. By cross-referencing Part V-A of Chapter 1 of Subtitle I of Title 39, the legislation integrates information technology services procurement into the broader procurement code framework. The competitive procurement exemption is conditioned on the external procurement activity having originally acquired the system through a competitive process, thereby preserving competitive bidding principles at the initial acquisition stage while permitting subsequent cooperative utilization of that competitively procured asset.