6.30.230 Professional services.
(a) For prime professional services contracts with a value of $1,000,000 or less:
(1) If awarded competitively to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder: The OSDI Director may consider granting a bid discount of the lesser of five percent or $50,000, or a higher percentage or amount if authorized by state law, to bids submitted by a qualified eligible MBE. Collectively, eligible MBE or WSSC-approved SLBE primes and subcontractors must retain 60 percent of the contract value. This requirement does not apply to supply contracts, licensing agreements and distributorship agreements. Any eligible MBE awarded a WSSC contract under this policy as a prime consultant/contractor shall not subcontract more than 40 percent of the contract value to a firm other than other certified eligible MBEs and WSSC-approved SLBE firms. The preference price reduction for an eligible MBE bidding as a prime shall not exceed the lesser of five percent or $50,000, or a higher percentage or amount if authorized by state law. Application of this preference is applied when bids are received and evaluated by the OSDI.
(2) If awarded pursuant to an evaluation of proposals submitted in response to a RFP: The OSDI Director may consider granting a point preference to an eligible MBE. The point preference for an eligible MBE responding as a prime shall not exceed five percent of the total evaluation points. Collectively, eligible MBE or WSSC-approved SLBE primes and subcontractors must retain 60 percent of the contract value. This requirement does not apply to supply contracts, licensing agreements and distributorship agreements. Any eligible MBE awarded a WSSC contract under this policy as a prime consultant/contractor shall not subcontract more than 40 percent of the contract value to a firm other than other certified eligible MBEs and WSSC-approved SLBE firms.
(3) WSSC may award additional incentive evaluation points of less than five percent of the total points that can be realized from applying all evaluation criteria to any qualified non-MBE firm that demonstrates its good faith intention to use an eligible MBE as a subcontractor.
(4) WSSC may establish consideration on a contract-specific basis, for bids or proposals criteria that eligible MBEs have a principal place of business in either Montgomery County or Prince George’s County on WSSC-funded contracts.
(5) The OSDI Director shall implement the foregoing prime contract remedies only after first considering implementation of the remedies set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of this section and determining that they are ineffective.
(b) For any professional services contract, the OSDI Director may determine, on a contract-by-contract basis, a contract-specific subcontracting goal for eligible MBEs. This contract-specific goal shall be based on an assessment of the specific types of professional services required under the contract, and the relative availability of ready, willing, and able eligible MBEs to provide such services. The IFB/RFP/RFQ documents for the contract shall require all bidders to exercise good faith efforts to attain the mandated percentage of eligible MBE subcontractor participation. Bidders shall submit with their bids the name, ownership, MBE status and scope (and dollar value) of work for each proposed subcontractor. Upon award of the prime contract, the prime contractor shall be required to submit accurate progress payment information with each invoice regarding each of its subcontractors, including MBE subcontractors. All direct subcontracting must be reported on a WSSC-funded contract; and all subcontractors must be approved by the OSDI. The OSDI shall audit the reported payments to MBE and non-MBE subcontractors to ensure that the prime contractors’ reported subcontractor participation is accurate. A notice to proceed will not be issued until a current, correct and complete subcontracting plan is approved in WSSC’s Web-Based Compliance System by the OSDI for each contract term, if applicable.
(c) In addition to the foregoing race- and gender-conscious remedies, the OSDI Director may, with the approval of the Commission, at the beginning of a calendar or fiscal year, establish an overall professional services MBE annual aspirational subcontracting goal for eligible MBEs. This goal shall be flexibly applied and shall reflect: the availability of eligible MBEs that provide professional services, as determined by the disparity study; the types of professional services provided by these firms; and the OSDI Director’s assessment regarding the specific types of professional services that will be required by WSSC’s prime professional services contractors during the year in which the overall goal will apply. This overall aspirational subcontracting goal, however, shall be administered via contract-specific goal setting established herewith. (Res. 2023-2325; REG-PROC-SD-2017-004 § VI(G))