Message to the House of Representatives of the State of Kansas:

Pursuant to Article 2, Section 14 of the Constitution of the State of Kansas, I hereby veto House Bill 2719.

House Bill 2719 attempts to provide a mechanism for reviewing contracts proposed under the non-competitive bid exceptions of current law. Although the notice provisions of this bill are probably not unduly burdensome, the legislature failed to adequately define who can file a legitimate protest to a non-competitive contract. There are no provisions to guard against abuse of protests without merit. This failure can result in costs to the taxpayers in both time and money.

For example, legitimate protests to the non-competitive contracts should come from someone knowledgeable and interested in bidding not simply from someone more interested in disrupting the acquisition of goods and services vital to the State of Kansas.

For these reasons, I veto House Bill 2719.

BILL GRAVES
Governor

Dated: May 31, 2002