Value Engineer (VE)

HRS 103D-302(h) provides the authority

(h)  The contract shall be awarded with reasonable promptness by written notice to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder whose bid meets the requirements and criteria set forth in the invitation for bids.  In the event all bids exceed available funds as certified by the appropriate fiscal officer, the head of the purchasing agency responsible for the procurement in question is authorized in situations where time or economic considerations preclude resolicitation of work of a reduced scope to negotiate an adjustment of the bid price, including changes in the bid requirements, with the low responsible and responsive bidder, in order to bring the bid within the amount of available funds.

Email from Christian Butt 8/21/23:

• The Statute is vague about the appropriate fiscal officer, but that would either be Eddie, as he is authorized to expend the funds under HRS 37, possibly Derek but am unclear as to his exact role, or higher such as yourself (AS Tanaka) or at the next echelon of the chain of command.  

• We need to be rigorous in our documentation that the bidder was responsible in the event of protest after award, and that we indeed didn't have the money and the decision was not arbitrary or after the fact (i.e. our accounting is clean), and we did not have time or economic conditions precluded resolicitation.