The California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program: state contracts.

Existing law establishes goals that apply to the overall dollar amount expended each year by an awarding department, as defined, to facilitate the participation of disabled veteran business enterprises in state contracts, and establishes the California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Program for this purpose. Existing law requires the Department of General Services to make available a report on contracting activity containing specified information, including the level of participation, by agency, of disabled veteran business enterprises in statewide contracting, including the dollar values of contract award in specified categories. This bill would require the contracting activity report, with respect to disabled veteran business enterprise participation, commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year and each fiscal year thereafter, to include the dollar amounts expended annually on contracts pursuant to the program, and would require an awarding department to report those expenditures to the Department of General Services. The bill would require the awarding department, for each disabled veteran business enterprise that contracts directly with an awarding department as a prime contractor, to report expenditures based on the amounts paid during the fiscal year, and to maintain accounting records and other supporting documentation sufficient for the verification and audit of the reported payments. The bill would require the awarding department, for each disabled veteran business enterprise that works as a subcontractor to a prime contractor, to report expenditures based on a joint certification from both the prime contractor and the disabled veteran business enterprise subcontractor, attesting to the amounts paid to the disabled veteran business enterprise under each contract, and to maintain signed certifications for the verification and audit of the reported payments. The bill would require the Department of General Services, in consultation with the Department of Veterans Affairs, to develop, before July 1, 2015, a joint certification form to be used by awarding departments.