The 2015 South Carolina OSE Manual – No New Guidance on CM-at-Risk or Design-Build Contract Administration
By Leslie Sullivan On June 3, 2016 | Public Procurement
Back in 2008, the South Carolina legislature enacted changes to the South Carolina Consolidated Procurement Code. These changes allowed state agencies the use of additional project delivery methods for state construction projects including design-build, design-builder-operate and maintain, design-builder-finance-operate and maintain, and construction management at-risk. (2008 S.C. Acts 174). The State Fiscal Accountability Authority (formerly the State Budget and Control Board) began developing regulations to implement the use of these new project delivery systems for state projects. While both the 2011 and 2015 OSE Manual include chapters regarding procurement of, and required contract clauses for, these new project delivery services, the State Engineer’s office has still not developed regulations regarding administration of the contracts for design-build or CM-at-risk.
Comparing the 2011 and 2015 versions of the OSE Manual, there are no significant changes regarding procurement of the various Design-build services. The only changes to CM-at-risk procurement pertain to pre-qualifications. If the agency wants to pre-qualify CM-at-risk firms, the agency has to outline how they intend to prequalify firms and must work under OSE’s supervision to pre-qualify bidders.
In regard to the required contract clauses for CM-at-risk and Design-build projects, the only changes are clauses to implement the Iran Divestment Act and the Open Trade Representation, which are required by S.C. Code Ann. § 11-35-5300, and became effective in June 2015.
This post is part of a series by Elmore Goldsmith attorney Leslie Sullivan examining recent changes to the 2015 edition of the South Carolina Manual for Planning and Execution of State Permanent Improvements. The manual can be found in its entirety here. To view other posts in this series, click here.
