Administrative Services

STATE CONTRACTS DATABASE

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What selections must I make in order to search the database?

  • Users must first select the CONTRACT STATUS. This means whether the search is for an Active contract or an Expired contract. The database catalogues documents active as of January 1, 2014. If a contract expired prior to January 1, 2014, it will NOT be contained in the database.
  • The CONTRACT ORIGIN must be selected. Users must choose between documents held by the State of Nebraska and its agencies (Agency) or by the University of Nebraska and Nebraska State College system (Higher Education).
  • An ENTITY must also be selected.
    • When the CONTRACT ORIGIN is ‘Agency,’ Users may select a specific Agency, Board, Commission, or Department, or they may select ‘ALL’ to search all agencies or ‘STATEWIDE’ to search for contracts that are available to all state agencies.
    • When the CONTRACT ORIGIN is ‘Higher Education,’ Users can select the specific University or State College or they may select ‘ALL’ to search all Higher Education entities.
  • When the CONTRACT ORIGIN is ‘Higher Education’ an additional required field is DOCUMENT TYPE where the User must choose to search either Contracts or Purchase Orders.

What optional selections may I make in order to limit the number of returned documents?

  • Searching by VENDOR is not required; however, using this search criterion requires Users to enter at least two characters that appear in the Vendor name.
  • Another criterion to limit the number of returned documents is the CONTRACT DOLLAR AMOUNT field. Users may select a specific dollar range or leave the field with the default of ‘Any.’

What is in this database?

This database contains all of Contracts, Purchase Orders, and supporting documents that constitute an expenditure of state funds. Uploaded documents are both viewable and printable directly from the web browser.

How often is this database updated?

This database is updated daily.

Why isn’t the contract I am searching for available?

It is possible that the document you are attempting to view is in process of being uploaded or the document you would like to view is one of the few documents excluded from the database by statute.

What documents are excluded from the database?

This database does not contain contracts entered into by the Department of Health and Human Services, University of Nebraska, Nebraska State Colleges, or Department of Veterans’ Affairs that provide specific aid, assistance, or services to a specific individual.

This database does not contain any contracts entered into by the State Energy Office for the purpose of providing financing from the Dollar and Energy Saving Loan program.

This database does not contain contracts of employment for employees of any State Agency, unless it is a contract to obtain the services of an independent contractor.

What is a statewide contract?

A statewide contract is a contract available for use by all State Agencies and not for a specific agency’s use.

Why is my download so slow?

Downloads are dependent on your connection, ISP, and bandwidth usage. If you are attempting to download multiple files, or if you are overly taxing your browser, you may be receiving a slower download speed.

Contract Value – How is it determined?

  • For contracts pertaining to Services, the dollar values are the estimation of the cost of the whole contract with any possible renewals included.
  • For contracts pertaining to Commodities, the dollar values are the total of the Purchase Orders drawn from that contract.
  • Statewide contracts are valued in the same method as Commodity contracts.

Record Retention – How long are these documents being held?

The State Contracts Database currently has no record retention schedule. All documents uploaded to the database will remain in the system indefinitely. Individual agencies may have different schedules of record retention applicable to the hard copies of documents maintained by such agencies, and may therefore dispose of such documents in accordance with same. Uploaded documents will continue to remain accessible on the website. Once a contract reaches its end date, it will have a status of ‘Expired.’

What does it mean if I see “–PURCHASE ORDERS” in the vendor name?

The vendor name is fed from our main financial system and if the vendor name contains Purchase Orders it is an indication to those State of Nebraska end- users of the financial system to use this vendor to create contracts and purchase orders.

Why is the end date on this contract on the website, different from the end date on the document?

The ending dates are fed from our main financial system and may be different on the website than on the contract itself because invoices may be expected after the date has passed for work performed prior to the end date. This allows invoices to be paid for this work.

Why is there an end date of 1/1/2099?

These represent purchase orders entered into our main financial system and they have no end date. Once a purchase order is created it can be utilized in perpetuity unless an end date is entered.