Contracts and Purchasing

TEA’s Contracts and Purchasing Division (CPD) is responsible for the procurement of goods and services that support the educational, research, and business initiatives of TEA. CPD is the central purchasing and contracting authority for TEA and is the central repository for all contracts created and monitored by TEA, as well as all contracts to which TEA is a signatory. TEA has delegated purchasing authority from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (CPA) for one-time purchases of goods of $50,000 or less and for services valued at $100,000 or less. Purchases above the thresholds are subject to review by the CPA Statewide Procurement Division.

TEA currently has over 400 contracts valued at approximately $1 billion with annual expenditures estimated at $250 million.

Contract Opportunities

TEA posts contracting opportunities to the Electronic State Business Daily (ESBD) on the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts website, as required by statute. This information is also available on TEA's Contract Opportunities page.

Centralized Master Bidders List

TEA encourages vendors and service providers to register for the Centralized Master Bidders List (CMBL), a master database maintained by the CPA. State purchasers use the CMBL to develop a mailing list for vendors to receive contracting opportunities based on the products or services they can provide to the State of Texas.

Historically Underutilized Businesses Awarded Contracts

TEA must provide information on contracts valued at $50,000 or more to the Legislative Budget Board (LBB). The LBB Contracts Database is maintained by the Texas Legislative Budget Board and makes contract information publicly available.

Contracts valued at $50,000 or less, but more than $15,000 are available on TEA’s Current Contracts page, as required by Texas Government Code 2054.126(d)(4) and 2261.253.

Information on statewide contracts competitively bid by the State Procurement Division is available on the CPA’s website.

Information on government information and communication technology contracts is available on the Department of Information Resources website.

Limited Contact Policy

Communication and information shared by industry representatives is a vital resource for public procurement professionals. However, to maintain fair and fully competitive procurement opportunities for all vendors and to avoid any appearance of impropriety, vendor communication with program staff must cease once the development of a competitive solicitation begins. Any communication between a vendor and TEA must be limited to communication with the CPD staff. Potential vendors who fail to comply with the TEA limited contact policy will be disqualified from award consideration.

Preventing Fraud, Abuse, and Waste

Texas Government Code 2261.256 requires all state agencies to adopt policies and procedures to comply with purchasing accountability and risk analysis procedures. TEA has adopted procedures for assessing the risk of fraud, abuse, or waste in the contractor selection process, contract provisions, and the payment and reimbursement rates and methods for the different types of good and services for which TEA contracts.

All TEA contracts are monitored based on established criteria to set clear levels of purchasing accountability. Employee roles and responsibilities are designed to ensure TEA has effective internal controls for the procurement and contracting process.

Purchasing accountability, risk analysis, monitoring and enhanced monitoring information is included in the TEA Contract Management Handbook and is available on the Contract Monitoring page.

Purchasing

CPD is also responsible for the purchasing of standard offices supplies, furniture, equipment, meeting rooms, subscriptions, and one-time personal services contracts under $5,000.