The Public Bid Law prohibits the division or “splitting” of public work projects into smaller projects for the purpose of avoiding the advertisement and letting of the contract for bid. R.S. 38:2212(V). Therefore, if all of the phases are continuous parts of a single project, the public work should be bid out as a single bid. If a project is a continuous process with several phases then one bid will suffice.
The AG has noted that if the separation of projects or purchases is done for legitimate business reasons, such as limiting the size of projects or purchases to available funding for the fiscal year, and is not done for the purpose of avoiding the bidding of the project or purchase, then such separation would be permissible. See, AG Op. No. 08-0067 & AG Op. No. 00-0246
If several projects are separate and all facts show they should be considered separate and distinct, then a public entity may consider them as separate projects, and bid accordingly. Id.
Further, if the Town chooses to do the project in phases but still bids out each phase (even those phases that fall below the public works threshold) then the prohibitions against splitting would not appear to apply.
Louisiana Legislative Auditor website: 03/23/2025 06:21:23 AM |