Losing bids for pacts may be made public

Losing bids for some government contracts may soon be made public.

The state's Procurement Policy Board decided Monday to allow unsuccessful requests for proposals (RFPs) to be made public, said chief procurement officer Douglas Richins. The new policy, which still needs to be approved by the state records committee, closes a loophole in open records laws which allowed RFPs to be kept secret.

Traditional bids to sell government products or provide services, which are awarded based on price, are already made public. But the more complex RFPs have traditionally been kept private.

The primary concern for keeping the RFPs secret was that companies often include information in the proposals which they do not want their competitors to see. Under the new policy, trade secrets or proprietary information contained within the RFPs will remain private.