2023 Tennessee Code › Title 12 - PUBLIC PROPERTY, PRINTING AND CONTRACTS (§§ 12-1-101 — 12-12-113) › Chapter 3 - PUBLIC PURCHASES (§§ 12-3-101 — 12-3-1213) › Part 2 - BIDDING, CONTRACTS AND PURCHASES GENERALLY (§§ 12-3-201 — 12-3-202) › Section 12-3-201 - Chapter definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Central procurement office" means the government agency established in §
4-56-104
;
(2)
"Chief procurement officer" means the person holding the position established in §
4-56-104
, as the head of the central procurement office and with the powers and duties set forth in §
4-56-105
;
(3)
"Committee" means the state protest committee as established in §
4-56-103
;
(4)
"Contract" means any duly authorized and legally binding written agreement for the procurement of goods and services;
(5)
"Council" means the advisory council on state procurement established in §
4-56-106
;
(6)
"Data" means any recorded information, regardless of its form or characteristic;
(7)
"Energy efficiency standard" means a performance standard that prescribes the relationship of the energy use of a product to its useful output of services;
(8)
(A)
"Goods" means all personal property, including, but not limited to, supplies, equipment, materials, printing, and insurance;
(B)
"Goods" does not include real property;
(9)
(A)
"Grant" means any grant awarded to the state or awarded by the state to any person to support a program authorized by law;
(B)
"Grant" does not include an award whose primary purpose is to procure an end product, whether in the form of supplies, services, or construction, or any contract resulting from such an award;
(10)
"Invitation to bid" means all documents, whether attached or incorporated by reference, utilized for soliciting bids for the lowest cost, responsive and responsible bidder;
(11)
"Major energy-consuming product" means any article so designated by the chief procurement officer in consultation with the central procurement office staff;
(12)
"Political subdivision" means any authority, city, town, municipality, county or instrumentality of any authority, city, town, municipality or county within the state;
(13)
(A)
"Procurement" means buying, purchasing, renting, leasing, or otherwise acquiring of any goods or services;
(B)
"Procurement" also includes all functions that pertain to the obtaining of goods or services, including the description of requirements, selection and solicitation of sources, preparation and award of a contract, and all phases of contract administration;
(14)
"Procurement commission" means the state procurement commission, as established in §
4-56-102
;
(15)
"Procurement file" means the record of a solicitation, as set forth in the policies and procedures of the central procurement office and the procurement commission, and includes a copy of the following records:
(1)
All evaluated technical proposals, cost proposals, and evaluation sheets;
(2)
The solicitation and all amendments to the solicitation;
(3)
All approved rule exception requests related to the solicitation;
(4)
All conflict of interest disclosure documentation;
(5)
Evaluator attestations;
(6)
A list of all suppliers solicited to participate in the procurement;
(7)
All correspondence between respondents and this state regarding clarifications or negotiations;
(8)
All subject matter expert reports;
(9)
All decisions to bypass a response as nonresponsive or non responsible;
(10)
All pre-proposal conference and site visit sign-in sheets;
(11)
All cost proposal scoring guides, bid abstracts, and bid analyses; and
(12)
The protest procedures and the exact dollar amount of the protest bond required by §
12-3-514
.
(16)
"Proprietary" means a good or service that is used, produced, or marketed under exclusive legal right of the inventor, maker or service provider that is protected under trade secret, patent, trademark, or copyright law;
(17)
"Request for proposal" means a written solicitation for written proposals to provide goods or services to the state or a state governmental entity based upon specified evaluation criteria;
(18)
"Respondent" includes a "bidder" or "proposer" that is a natural person or legal entity that has properly registered as required by the state. The terms "bidder" and "proposer" may be used interchangeably as the context requires;
(19)
"Response" means a written response to a solicitation for goods and services;
(20)
"Responsible" means a person who has the capacity in all respects to perform fully the contract requirements, as well as the integrity and reliability, which will assure good faith performance;
(21)
"Responsive" means a person who has submitted a response that conforms in all material respects to the competitive procurement;
(22)
"Services" means all services and agreements obligating the state, except services for highway and road improvements governed by title 54 and design and construction services governed by title 4, chapter 15;
(23)
"Solicitation" means any type of document that invites responses and may include, by way of example, an "invitation to bid", a "request for proposal" or a "competitive negotiation";
(24)
(A)
"Specification" means any description of the physical, functional, performance characteristics, or nature of a supply, service, or construction item;
(B)
"Specification" includes, as appropriate, requirements for inspecting, testing, or preparing a supply, service, or construction item for delivery;
(25)
"State agency" means any state governmental entity, other than the central procurement office and those state entities exempted by §
12-3-102
, that is authorized to enter into contracts by this title or its implementing regulations, or by way of delegation from the chief procurement officer, or that utilizes any goods or services procured under this title;
(26)
"State governmental entity" means any agency, authority, board, commission, department, or office within the executive, legislative or judicial branches of state government or any autonomous state agency, authority, board, commission, council, department, office, or institution of higher education; and
(27)
"Vendor" means a natural person or legal entity that has been established by the department of finance and administration's division of accounts as a vendor through proper authority for which payment may be made by the state.
Amended by 2024 Tenn. Acts, ch. 634,s 1, eff. 4/2/2024.
Amended by 2013 Tenn. Acts, ch. 403, s 13, eff. 7/1/2013.
Acts 1987, ch. 337, § 2; 2010 , ch. 1098, § 2; 2011 , ch. 295, § 5.