SUBPART B. DEFINITIONS

§1556. Definitions

            As used in this Chapter, the words defined in this Section shall have the meanings set forth below, unless the context in which they are used clearly requires a different meaning or a different definition is prescribed for a particular Part or provision:

            (1) "Agency" as used in this Chapter shall have the same meaning ascribed to it as provided in R.S. 36:3(1).

            (2) "Assembled" means the process of putting together all component parts of an item of equipment by the manufacturer where the assembly plant is located within the territorial borders of the state of Louisiana. "Assembled" shall not mean the reassembly of parts packed for shipping purposes.

            (3) "Business" means any corporation, partnership, individual, sole proprietorship, joint stock company, joint venture, or any other legal entity through which business is conducted.

            (4) "Central purchasing agency" means the office of state procurement.

            (5) "Change order" means a written order signed by the procurement officer, directing the contractor to make changes which the contract authorizes the procurement officer to order without the consent of the contractor.

            (6) "Chief procurement officer" means the person holding the position created in R.S. 39:1562 and the directors of purchasing of the departments exempt from the office of state procurement by R.S. 39:1572.

            (7) "Claims adjuster" means an individual engaged in the investigation, evaluation, and negotiation of property, casualty, and worker's compensation insurance claims.

            (8) "Competitive negotiation" means to negotiate for a contract through a request for proposals process or any other similar competitive selection process.

            (9) "Competitive sealed bidding" means the receipt of bids protected from inspection prior to bid opening. Bids may be received in any manner specified in the invitation for bids including receipt by mail, by direct delivery, or through any secure electronic interactive environment permitted by rule or regulation.

            (10)(a) "Consulting service" means work, other than professional, personal, or social service, rendered by either individuals or firms who possess specialized knowledge, experience, and expertise to investigate assigned problems or projects and to provide counsel, review, design, development, analysis, or advice in formulating or implementing programs or services, or improvements in programs or services, including but not limited to such areas as management, personnel, finance, accounting, planning, information technology, pharmacy benefit managers, and advertising contracts, except for printing associated therewith.

            (b) The term "consulting service" includes the procurement of supplies and services by a contractor without the necessity of complying with provisions of the Louisiana Procurement Code when such supplies and services are either for insurance procured directly by a licensed insurance producer pursuant to R.S. 39:1540(B), or are merely ancillary to the provision of consulting services under a contingency fee arrangement, even though the procurement of such supplies or services directly by a governmental body would require compliance with the Louisiana Procurement Code. Supplies or services ancillary to the provision of consulting services are those supplies or services which assist the contractor in fulfilling the objective of his contract when the cost for such supplies and services is less than the cost of providing consulting services, as determined by the using agency.

            (11) "Contract" means all types of state agreements, regardless of what they may be called, including orders and documents purporting to represent grants, which are for the purchase or disposal of supplies, services, major repairs, or any other item. It includes awards and notices of award; contracts of a fixed-price, cost, cost-plus-a-fixed-fee, or incentive type; contracts providing for the issuance of job or task orders; leases; letter contracts; and purchase orders. It also includes supplemental agreements with respect to any of the foregoing.

            (12) "Contract modification" means any written alteration in specifications, delivery point, rate of delivery, period of performance, price, quantity, or other provisions of any contract accomplished by mutual action of the parties to the contract.

            (13) "Contractor" means any person having a contract with a governmental body.

            (14) "Cooperative purchasing" means procurement conducted by or on behalf of more than one public procurement unit or by a public procurement unit with an external procurement activity or by a private procurement unit.

            (15) "Cost-reimbursement contract" means a contract under which a contractor is reimbursed for costs which are allowable and allocable in accordance with cost principles as provided for in regulations, and a fee, if any.

            (16) "Court" means the Nineteenth Judicial District located in Baton Rouge and, in the event of an appeal from such a court, the First Circuit Court of Appeal located in Baton Rouge.

            (17) "Data" means recorded information, regardless of form or characteristic.

            (18) "Debarment" means the disqualification of a person to receive invitations for bids or requests for proposals, or the award of any contract by any governmental body, for a specified period of time commensurate with the seriousness of the offense or the failure or the inadequacy of performance.

            (19) "Designee" means a duly authorized representative of a person holding a superior position.

            (20) "Electronic" means electrical, digital, magnetic, optical, electromagnet, or any other similar technology.

            (21) "Employee" means an individual drawing a salary from a governmental body, whether elected or not, and any nonsalaried individual performing personal services for any governmental body.

            (22) "Established catalog price" means the price included in a catalog, price list, schedule, or other form that:

            (a) Is regularly maintained by a manufacturer or contractor.

            (b) Is either published or otherwise available for inspection by customers.

            (c) States prices at which sales are currently or were last made to a significant number of buyers constituting the general buying public for the supplies or services involved.

            (23) "External procurement activity" means any buying organization not located in this state which, if located in this state, would qualify as a public procurement unit. An agency of the United States government is an external procurement activity.

            (24) "Governmental body" means any department, office, division, commission, council, board, bureau, committee, institution, agency, government corporation, or other establishment or official of the executive branch of state government. For purposes of procurement of personal, professional, consulting, and social services contracts, governmental shall not include the judicial branch of state government.

            (25) "Governmental entity" means any governmental unit which is not included in the definition of "governmental body" in this Section.

            (26) "Grant" means the furnishing by the state of assistance, whether financial or otherwise, to any person to support a program authorized by law. It does not include an award whose primary purpose is to procure an end product, whether in the form of supplies, services, or major repairs; a contract resulting from such an award is not a grant but a procurement contract.

            (27) "Information technology", which includes telecommunications, means those commodities subject to the authority of the office of technology services in accordance with R.S. 39:15.3.

            (28) "Installment-purchase contract" means a contract which is utilized to procure supplies or equipment from a contractor where payment for the supplies or equipment is made in a set of installment payments over a fixed period of time in accordance with the provisions of the contract, and in which the contractor agrees to deliver title of the property to the governmental body in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract.

            (29) "Interagency contract" means any contract in which each of the parties thereto is a "governmental body" as defined in this Section.

            (30) "Invitation for bids" means all documents, whether attached or incorporated by reference, utilized for soliciting bids in accordance with the procedures set forth in R.S. 39:1594.

            (31) "Invitation to negotiate" means a written or electronically posted solicitation for competitive sealed replies to select one or more vendors with which to commence negotiations for the procurement of information technology systems, information technology services, software, professional services, or consulting services.

            (32) "Local public procurement unit" means any parish, city, town, governmental body, and any other subdivision of the state or public agency thereof, public authority, public educational, health, or other institution, and to the extent provided by law, any other entity which expends public funds for the acquisition or leasing of supplies, services, major repairs, and construction, and any nonprofit corporation operating a charitable hospital.

            (33) "Major repairs" means those repairs payable with funds appropriated in the general appropriations act, except those funds transferred from the operating budget of one governmental body to supplement and complete a project under contract by the division of administration facility planning and control section.

            (34) "May" denotes the permissive.

            (35) "Negotiation" means the formulation of a contractual relationship through discussions as may be allowed under this Chapter.

            (36) "Performance-based energy efficiency contract" means a contract for energy efficiency services and equipment in which the payment obligation for each year of the contract is either:

            (a) Set as a percentage of the annual energy cost savings attributable to the services or equipment under the contract.

            (b) Guaranteed by the person under contract to be less than the annual energy cost savings attributable to the services or equipment under the contract.

            (37) "Person" means any business, individual, union, committee, club, or other organization or group of individuals.

            (38) "Personal service" means work rendered by individuals which requires use of creative or artistic skills, including but not limited to graphic artists, sculptors, musicians, photographers, and writers, or which requires use of highly technical or unique individual skills or talents, including but not limited to paramedicals, therapists, handwriting analysts, foreign representatives, and expert witnesses for adjudications or other court proceedings. A "foreign representative" shall mean a person in a foreign country whose education and experience qualify such person to represent the state in such foreign country.

            (39) "Practicable" means that which can be done or put into practice; feasible.

            (40) "Private procurement unit" means any regionally accredited independent college or university in the state that is a member of the Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities or any early learning center as defined in R.S. 17:407.33(A).

            (41) "Procurement" means the buying, purchasing, renting, leasing, or otherwise obtaining any supplies, services, or major repairs. It also includes all functions that pertain to the obtaining of any public procurement, including description of requirements, selection and solicitation of sources, preparation and award of contract, and all phases of contract administration.

            (42) "Procurement officer" means any person authorized by a governmental body, in accordance with procedures prescribed by regulations, to enter into and administer contracts and make written determinations and findings with respect thereto. The term also includes an authorized representative acting within the limits of authority.

            (43) "Professional service" means work rendered by an independent contractor who has a professed knowledge of some department of learning or science used by its practical application to the affairs of others or in the practice of an art founded on it, which independent contractor shall include but not be limited to lawyers, doctors, dentists, psychologists, certified advanced practice nurses, veterinarians, architects, engineers, land surveyors, landscape architects, accountants, actuaries, and claims adjusters. A profession is a vocation founded upon prolonged and specialized intellectual training which enables a particular service to be rendered. The word "professional" implies professed attainments in special knowledge as distinguished from mere skill. For contracts with a total amount of compensation of fifty thousand dollars or more, the definition of "professional service" shall be limited to lawyers, doctors, dentists, psychologists, certified advanced practice nurses, veterinarians, architects, engineers, land surveyors, landscape architects, accountants, actuaries, claims adjusters, and any other profession that may be added by regulations adopted by the office of state procurement of the division of administration.

            (44) "Public procurement unit" means either a local public procurement unit or a state public procurement unit.

            (45) "Purchasing agency" means any governmental body which is authorized by this Chapter or its implementing regulations, or by way of delegation from the state chief procurement officer, to contract on its own behalf rather than through the central contracting authority of the office of state procurement.

            (46) "Qualified group purchasing organization" means a service organization, whether for profit or not, with a membership of at least fifteen hospitals within the United States, which contracts with suppliers for supplies and materials used in hospitals and makes such contracts available to its members.

            (47) "Request for proposals" means all documents, whether attached or incorporated by reference, utilized for soliciting proposals in accordance with the procedures set forth in this Chapter.

            (48) "Resident business" means one authorized to do and doing business under the laws of this state, which either:

            (a) Maintains its principal place of business in the state.

            (b) Employs a minimum of two employees who are residents of the state.

            (49) "Responsible bidder or proposer" means a person who has the capability in all respects to perform the contract requirements and the integrity and reliability which will assure good faith performance.

            (50) "Responsive bidder" means a person who has submitted a bid under R.S. 39:1594 which conforms in all substantive respects to the invitation for bids, including the specifications set forth in the invitation.

            (51) "Reverse auction" means a competitive online solicitation process on the internet for materials, supplies, services, products, equipment, or consulting services in which vendors compete against each other online in real time in an open and interactive environment.

            (52) "Services" means the furnishing of labor, time, or effort by a contractor whose primary purpose is to perform an identifiable task rather than to furnish an end item of supply.

            (a) Services include but are not limited to the following:

            (i) Maintenance, overhaul, repair, servicing, rehabilitation, salvage, modernization or modification of supplies, systems, or equipment.

            (ii) Routine recurring maintenance of immovable property.

            (iii) Housekeeping services.

            (iv) Operation of government owned equipment, immovable property, and systems.

            (v) Information technology services.

            (b) The term "services" shall not include:

            (i) Employment agreements or collective bargaining agreements.

            (ii) Personal, professional, consulting, or social services as defined in this Chapter.

            (iii) Services performed by lawyers as provided by R.S. 42:261 through 264.

            (iv) Services performed by an architect, engineer, or landscape architect as provided by R.S. 38:2310 through 2314.

            (53) "Shall" denotes the imperative.

            (54) "Signature" means a manual or electronic signature. "Electronic signature" means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record.

            (55) "Social service" means work rendered by any person, firm, corporation, organization, governmental body, or governmental entity in furtherance of the general welfare of the citizens of Louisiana, including but not limited to the objectives provided for in R.S. 39:1619(A).

            (56) "Specification" means any description of the physical or functional characteristics, or of the nature of a supply, service, or major repair. It may include a description of any requirement for inspecting, testing, or preparing a supply, service, or major repair for delivery.

            (57) "State chief procurement officer" means the person holding the position created in R.S. 39:1562 as head of the central purchasing agency of Louisiana.

            (58) "State public procurement unit" means the central purchasing agency and any other purchasing agency of this state.

            (59) "Supplemental agreement" means any contract modification which is accomplished by the mutual action of the parties.

            (60) "Supplies" means all property, including but not limited to equipment, materials, insurance, and leases on immovable property excluding land or a permanent interest in land.

            (61) "Suspension" means the disqualification of a person to receive invitations for bids or requests for proposals, or the award of a contract by the state, for a temporary period pending the completion of an investigation and any legal proceedings that may ensue because a person is suspected upon probable cause of engaging in criminal, fraudulent, or seriously improper conduct or failure or inadequacy of performance which may lead to debarment.

            (62) "Using agency" means any governmental body of the state which utilizes any supplies, services, or major repairs purchased under this Chapter.

            (63) "Written" or "in writing" means the product of any method of forming characters on paper, other materials, or viewable screen, which can be read, retrieved, and reproduced, including information that is electronically transmitted and stored.

            Added by Acts 1979, No. 715, §1, eff. July 1, 1980. Amended by Acts 1980, No. 524, §1, eff. July 23, 1980; Acts 1985, No. 673, §1; Acts 1985, No. 995, §2, eff. July 23, 1985; Acts 1990, No. 930, §1; Acts 2000, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 134, §2, eff. April 19, 2000; Acts 2001, No. 1032, §13; Acts 2014, No. 498, §1; Acts 2014, No. 715, §1; Acts 2014, No. 864, §2, eff. Jan. 1, 2015; Acts 2019, No. 101, §1; Acts 2021, No. 102, §2; Acts 2024, No. 734, §2.

NOTE: Redesignated in part and amended by Acts 2014, No. 864, §2, eff. Jan. 1, 2015.