OAR 137-045-0030: Review of Public Contracts

(1) Except as described in section (2), before a Public Contract is binding on the State of Oregon, and before any service may be performed or payment may be made under the Public Contract, the Attorney General must approve for legal sufficiency in accordance with these rules: (a) Any Public Contract that is for or includes the acquisition of Information Technology that requests or provides for payment in excess of $150,000; (b) Any Public Contract other than those described in subsection 1(a) above that requests or provides for payment in excess of $250,000; (c) An amendment to a Public Contract described in subsection (1)(a) or 1(b), unless these rules otherwise exempt the amendment from such approval; or (d) An amendment to a Public Contract that makes the amended Public Contract subject to legal sufficiency approval under subsection (1)(a) or 1(b). (2) The legal sufficiency approval requirement described in section (1) does not apply to Public Contracts that are exempt from legal sufficiency approval under these division 045 rules. (3) For purposes of determining whether a Public Contract exceeds the amounts set forth in section (1), a Public Contract requests or provides for payments in excess of the applicable amount if one of the following applies: (a) The Public Contract expressly provides that the Agency will make or receive payments in money, services or goods over the anticipated term of the Public Contract with a value that will, in aggregate, exceed the applicable threshold, whether or not the total amount or value of the payments is expressly stated. For purposes of this subsection, when an agency is lending money, and the only payment to the Agency is in money, "payments" receivable by the Agency mean principal only; (b) The Public Contract expressly provides for a guaranteed maximum price or a maximum not to exceed amount payable or receivable by the Agency with a value that exceeds the applicable threshold; or (c) Based on historical or other data available to the Agency at the time of entering into the Public Contract, the Agency determines that the value of the benefit, loss or detriment to the Agency under the Public Contract will likely exceed the applicable threshold. (4) An Agency shall not fragment or segregate transactions for purposes of circumventing the legal sufficiency approval requirement. (5) A program or activity of a Grant recipient that is financed by the Grant does not constitute a service performed under a Public Contract for purposes of this rule.