# COMAR Title 21 — State Procurement Regulations

## Subtitle 05 — Procurement Methods and Project Delivery Methods

### Chapter 12 — Procurement of Human, Social, Cultural, and Educational Services

**Authority:** State Finance and Procurement Article, §§12-101, 13-102, 13-104, 13-106, 13-108, and 13-109, Annotated Code of Maryland

**Administrative History:** Effective date: January 2, 2017 (43:26 Md. R. 1449)

**Administrative History:** Regulation .02B amended effective March 3, 2025 (52:4 Md. R. 221)

**Administrative History:** Regulation .03C amended effective July 15, 2019 (46:14 Md. R. 623)

**Administrative History:** Regulation .07B, C amended effective June 29, 2020 (47:13 Md. R. 643)

#### Regulation .01 Scope.

*COMAR 21.05.12.01*

This chapter applies to procurements of human, social, cultural, and educational services.

#### Regulation .02 Notice of Certain Contracts.

*COMAR 21.05.12.02*

A. Locally Funded Contracts.

  (1) This section applies to a solicitation for a contract to provide human, social, cultural, or educational services if the contract is to be funded in part by a county or by Baltimore City under a legislative mandate or prior agreement.

  (2) Not later than the date the solicitation is publicly available, the procurement officer shall send a copy of it to the chief elected official, or designee, of the funding jurisdiction for review and comment. The procurement officer shall request the funding jurisdiction to provide its written comments within 30 days.

  (3) The procurement officer may not award the contract without considering timely funding jurisdiction comments, if any, submitted pursuant to §A(2) of this regulation. The procurement officer shall make a determination with respect to any timely funding jurisdiction comments that are not to be implemented.

B. Contracts with Government Entities. The procuring unit shall give notice in eMaryland Marketplace of  any award, extension, or renewal of a human, social, or educational services contract with a State agency, a political subdivision of the State, or other government, that results in a total contract price of more than $50,000, not more than 30 days after the approval and execution of the contract, extension, or renewal.

#### Regulation .03 Procurement Methods.

*COMAR 21.05.12.03*

A. Competitive sealed proposals under COMAR 21.05.03 is the preferred method for procuring human, social, cultural, and educational services.

B. Human, social, cultural, and educational services may be procured in accordance with the competitive sealed bidding procurement method, COMAR 21.05.02.

C. Human, social, cultural, and educational services of $50,000 or less may be procured in accordance with the small procurement method, COMAR 21.05.07.

D. Human, social, cultural, and educational services may be procured in accordance with the sole source procurement method, COMAR 21.05.05, for the purpose of a demonstration project, or in accordance with COMAR 21.05.05.02A or Regulation .06C of this chapter.

E. Human, social, cultural, and educational services may be procured in accordance with the emergency procurement method, COMAR 21.05.06, for the reasons specified in COMAR 21.05.06.02, or when an unforeseeable condition that seriously threatens the health, safety, or general welfare of third-party clients causes an immediate and serious need that cannot be met through other procurement methods.

F. Human, social, and educational services may be procured in accordance with the noncompetitive negotiation procurement method, Regulation .04 of this chapter.

#### Regulation .04 Noncompetitive Negotiated Procurement of Human, Social, or Educational Services.

*COMAR 21.05.12.04*

A. Only human, social, or educational services may be procured by this method.

B. The noncompetitive negotiated procurement method may be used if:

  (1) The procurement officer, with the approval of the agency head, determines that two or more sources for the services are available but that, because of the absence of effective competition, it is unreasonable to expect those sources to respond to an invitation for bids under COMAR 21.05.02 or request for proposals under COMAR 21.05.03.

  (2) The procurement is to obtain one of the following services:

    (a) An employer in a program of on the job training for employment and training purposes;

    (b) Group foster care services for children or adults under a negotiated rate system adopted by regulation; or

    (c) The following services for the mentally ill:

      (i) Residential rehabilitation services,

      (ii) Community rehabilitation services (psychosocial), or

      (iii) Therapeutic group home services for children and adolescents.

C. Public Notice.

  (1) At least 10 days before general expressions of interest are due, the procurement agency shall give public notice of its general requirements for services and request interested service providers to respond with written general expressions of interest.

  (2) Public notice of any request for expressions of interest shall:

    (a) Be sent to known potential providers; and

    (b) Be sent to interested advocacy organizations.

  (3) If the procurement agency expects that any contract may exceed $25,000, the request for general expressions of interest shall so state and shall be published in eMaryland Marketplace.

D. As a need for the services arises, the procurement officer may:

  (1) Conduct discussions with one or more responsible service providers that previously submitted an expression of interest; and

  (2) Award a contract to a provider if the procurement agency head, on the basis of discussions or past experience with the provider, determines that an award will be in the State's best interest.

E. As far as practicable in the course of a particular noncompetitive negotiated procurement, the procurement officer shall give responsible service providers that submitted acceptable or potentially acceptable expressions of interest fair and equal treatment with respect to discussions.

F. Notice of any award, regardless of amount, under this regulation shall be published in eMaryland Marketplace.

#### Regulation .05 Solicitation Requirements for Human and Social Services.

*COMAR 21.05.12.05*

A. This regulation applies to solicitations for human and social services by the Maryland Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Juvenile Services, the Department of Disabilities, and the Department of Aging.

B. The solicitation shall:

  (1) Explicitly refer to any applicable program standards adopted by the Maryland Department of Health, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Juvenile Services, the Department of Disabilities, or the Department of Aging;

  (2) Require each offering provider to indicate how it has or will meet these standards; and

  (3) Indicate that the contractor shall meet these standards before it provides any services under the contract.

C. Solicitation selection criteria shall include, as applicable, minimum qualifications of providers, minimum qualifications of program staff, minimum facility standards, past performance, and general program and fiscal accountability standards.

D. The solicitation shall, where relevant, request information concerning providers' proposals for easing any transition for third-party clients from the former provider to the offering provider and from the offering provider to a later provider.

#### Regulation .06 Multi-Year and Sole Source Human and Social Services Contracts — Assurance of Continuity of Third-Party Client Care.

*COMAR 21.05.12.06*

A. This regulation applies to contracts for human and social services and, in addition to other regulations, authorizes multi-year and sole source contracts.

B. Multi-Year Contracts.

  (1) In order to assure continuity of human or social services care, a procurement agency may enter a multi-year contract for human or social services when:

    (a) The conditions in COMAR 21.06.03.09 are met; or

    (b) The procurement officer, with the approval of the agency head, determines that it is not reasonable to expect that a contract for a single fiscal year will be sufficient to alleviate the conditions for which a group of third-party clients will receive the services.

  (2) The procurement officer shall follow the procedures required by COMAR 21.06.03.09D.

  (3) A multi-year contract, including any option periods, may extend for more than 3 years only with the prior express approval of the Board of Public Works.

C. Sole Source Contracts.

  (1) In order to provide continuity of human or social services care to current third-party clients, the procurement officer shall, before the contract with the current provider expires, attempt to negotiate a sole source contract with the current provider if:

    (a) A sole source contract with the current provider is authorized under COMAR 21.05.05.02A; or

    (b) Based on an assessment by a licensed or certified health practitioner, the head of a funding unit determines that a change in the human or social services provider would have a detrimental impact on those clients currently being served by the provider. The licensed or certified health practitioner shall be a psychologist, social worker, physician, nurse, or qualified developmental disabilities professional (QDDP), as defined in COMAR 10.22.03.01B(25), and:

      (i) May be employed by the procurement agency; but

      (ii) May not be employed by the provider that has the human or social services contract with the procurement agency for the third-party clients.

  (2) Before issuing a solicitation for services to be provided to current third-party clients, the procurement officer shall:

    (a) Decide whether a sole source contract will be negotiated for any of these current clients under §C(1) of this regulation;

    (b) Exclude from the solicitation any current third-party client for whom a sole source contract has been negotiated; and

    (c) Include in the solicitation a notice of any current sole source contract negotiations for current third-party clients, and a statement that these clients might not be included in any contract resulting from the solicitation.

#### Regulation .07 Approvals.

*COMAR 21.05.12.07*

A. Pursuant to COMAR 21.02.01.05A(1), the Board of Public Works shall review and approve an award of a human, social, cultural, or educational services contract for more than $200,000 before the contract is executed, unless the contract results from an emergency procurement.

B. Pursuant to COMAR 21.02.01.04B, the Department of General Services shall review and approve an award of a human, social, cultural, or educational services contract for $200,000 or less before the contract is executed, unless the contract results from an emergency procurement or a small procurement.

C. A human, social, cultural, or educational services contract resulting from an emergency procurement shall be reported as provided in COMAR 21.02.01.05A(3)(a).