Senate Bill S5398

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S5398

SPONSOR: SAVINO
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the state finance law, in relation to
utilizing software to verify hours worked on computers and billed to the
government for certain contracts

 
PURPOSE:

Requires contractors performing work for a state agency with the use of
a computer to track such computer usage.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Amends state finance law by adding a new section 136-d pertaining to
contracts for professional or technical services performed with the use
of a computer to use software to track the computer usage to verify work
hours performed.

This shall apply to contracts for more than two hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars for professional or technical services performed with the
              

use of a computer and billed at an hourly rate.

This bill shall not apply to:

- State employees

- State agencies contracting with other state agencies

- Law enforcement agencies

- Individuals who work for a contactor using a state-owned device.

 
EXISTING LAW:

Currently state agencies have no automatic billing verification system
to verify hours worked on a computer and billed to the state, relying on
age-old "self-certification"

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Increasing amounts of government contracts require the use of computers,
a virtual office or online activity. Recognizing the difficulty in veri-
fying hours worked on computers and billed to the government for govern-
ment contracts. Billing Verification Software (BVS) would establish a
secure and transparent process to verify hours worked on computers and
billed to the government contracts to prevent abuse and overbilling.

IT Contracts for Hours Worked on a Computer and Billed to the State,
Only: Legislation only applies to hours worked on a computer and billed
to the state for information technology contracts. The software is never
placed on state's computers, only on the contractors' computers.

o Hours not worked on a computer exempted - like conference calls, meet-
ings or travel can be manually entered into BVS, but those hours are not
subject to the requirements of the bill.



o BVS is not a performance management tool. It simply verifies hours
worked on a computer and billed to the state. It is not a tool to verify
the quality of work completed.

Screenshots: Screenshots verify work; taken every three minutes.  Howev-
er, this is customizable to 5, 7 or even 10 minutes, per the need for
the state. Screenshots can only be accessed by the contractor and the
state in its audit role. BVS vendors have no access to screenshots.

o This ensures all BVS data remains in the control of the Contractor and
auditing state.

Mouse Events and Keystrokes Only Counted: The bill also prescribes the
counting of mouse events or keystrokes, but prohibits the recording of
actual mouse events or keystrokes.

o This is to ensure activity is occurring on the computer; it is not a
performance measurement. Jobs vary; BVS does not prove quality or accu-
racy, only activity.

o This also prevents all recording of sensitive data, such as user names
and passwords.

As required by the legislation, BVS vendors will not have access to the
screenshots.

BVS is completely user controlled by the user, ensuring their and the
contractor's privacy

o The user turns it on when the begin work for the state and turns it
off when they stop. They can turn it on and off at any time

o The user can review and remove any screenshots before they are
uploaded to the cloud or behind the firewall and can do the same in
their diary where the screenshots are stored

o BVS can blank screenshots when using applications and websites that
contain private information leaving no need to redact information; this
protects the privacy and confidentiality of any sensitive or personal
information.

The contractor will have complete control over the storage, confiden-
tiality, privacy and sensitive information per federal and state law. No
storage time limits are set in the law, just by state law, regulations
or the terms of the contract.

Only State and Contractor Access BVS Data: Control over the data gener-
ated by the BVS remains in the hands of the contractor and the state's
access to this data is provided by the contractor.

o No third party will see any data generated by the BVS. Only the
contractor will see the data, except in the circumstance where the state
requests to see the data to verify billable hours as part of their audit
responsibilities.

o In such cases, the protections of financial data under audits will
ensure the data will not become public.

No Data Sold: To protect sensitive and private data, contractors may not
sell or use the screenshots in any way other than to prove and manage
hours worked on the computer and billed to the state.

BVS saves all vendors time and money, regardless of their size:  $2,500
per user per year! A worker who saves 6 minutes a day by automating
billable entry frees up an extra 30 minutes per week to work on deliver-
ing a better product to the state. Billing at $100 an hour means the
savings is $50 a week. Over a year, that is $2,500 per employee using
the system. That is time the state will no longer be billed for and can
be used by the contractor to improve the quality of the product deliv-
ered.

Data Storage by State Law - no timeframes in the bill: The time for
storage of the data generated by the BVS is determined by state law and
corresponding implementing regulations/contract.  BVS is a new tool that
creates the most efficient, consistent, accurate and transparent process
for Government to verify hours worked on a computer and billed to the
State.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New Bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined but may be offset by potential savings through
prevention of abuse and overbilling

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect one hundred eighty days after it shall have
become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or
repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of
this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed
on or before such effective date.