Lobbying Law

Effective January 1, 2006, The New York State Finance Law was amended to regulate efforts to influence the procurement process. All State facilities must abide by strict procedural requirements relating to the award of any contract/purchase order for goods or services estimated to be in excess of $15,000.00.

All "contact" relating to potential awards in excess of $15,000.00 including in-person meetings and video conferences between vendors or their representatives and the awarding State entity is now regulated. Only designated Agency personnel may have contact with the vendors or their representatives or lobbyist. In the case of Stony Brook University, the only designated contact person/s are Procurement Office Staff. It is strictly prohibited for anyone else to have contact with the vendors during the procurement "restricted period."

The restricted period starts when the end-user's department submits their State requisition to the Procurement Office and ends when an award (Purchase Order/Contract) is officially forwarded to the vendor. During this restricted period, all inquiries must be referred to the designated Procurement Office contact.

Preferred Sources

The New York State Finance Laws require us to purchase available goods and services that meet our form, function and utility requirements from certain New York State "Preferred Sources" (NYS Department of Corrections Services, NYS Industries for the Blind, NYS Industries for the Disabled, Office of Mental Health and Veterans Industries) up to any dollar amount without competition.

Sole and Single Source Purchase

Where competition would otherwise be required, but is not feasible due to the sole source, single source or emergency nature of a commodity or service, the campus must be able to justify and document the selection of the vendor and establish the reasonableness of the price. In accordance with the State Finance Law, exceptions to the general requirement for competitive selection shall only be made under unusual circumstances. The campus must maintain in its Procurement Record written justification supporting the sole source, single source or emergency determination. An example of substantiating single source procurement (limited number of suppliers) might be written documentation detailing prior substantial experience of the contractor in provision of the products or services customized to the SUNY environment or a certain service that only one contractor provides in addition to the service or technology being procured. An example of substantiating sole source procurement (only one supplier) would be written documentation detailing the unique nature of the requirement, how it was determined only one vendor could meet the need, and how it was determined the cost is reasonable. One method available to document the sole source status is to advertise in the NYS Contract Reporter and only receive one response. Sole and single source purchases greater than $50,000 require the submission of a Contract Reporter Exemption Request by The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC).

Current State Commodity and Service Contracts (P-Contracts)

The NYS Office of General Services (Albany) awards Statewide centralized term contracts for many commodities and services at reasonable prices. Departments should take advantage of these whenever possible. For most items, an unlimited dollar amount can be purchased without the need for further competition or approvals. State contracts are available to view at the following link here.