Steel Products Procurement Acts Several states have adopted legislation to control steel products procurement and usage

in public works projects. It is important to be aware of and better understand this legislation because noncompliance may result in significant ramifications for producers, purchasers, end users, and/or agents of the aforementioned parties. The purpose of this article is to mitigate risk by providing the reader with an introductory awareness of several important points extracted from typical legislation. This article is not meant to provide any formal legal interpretation or opinion. The reader is encouraged to seek their own legal advice should s/he have further questions related to interpreting or applying the legislation. Steel products procurement legislation is similar from state to state. Pennsylvania and Illinois are two states that have adopted and are enforcing Steel Products Procurement Acts. This article will reference primarily Pennsylvanias Steel Products Procurement Act. It can be found within Pennsylvania Statutes Title 73 (Trade and Commerce), Chapter 25. The relatively short-reading Act, which was amended in December, 2012, may be found readily using popular internet search engines. Parties defined and affected by Steel Products Procurement Acts include public agencies who solicit bids for public works projects and, typically, persons who directly respond to those bid solicitations and who directly receive public works project funding from public agencies. Persons may be natural persons, partnerships, business units, associations, and corporations. Practical examples may include site owners or operators and/or their architectural and engineering consulting firms acting as their agents, contractors, suppliers, and producer distributors/dealers. It is important to note the person who receives funds from a public agency in exchange for providing or, perhaps, authorizing procurement and provision of certain steel products for use within pubic works projects is responsible for assuring Act compliance. Usually, steel products producers are not the responsible person. Steel products, such as an engine generator set or a switchgear line up, procured from a producer often are comprised of steel components produced by multiple sub-producers. The producer should have thorough knowledge of and traceability to the origins of all raw steel materials and the locations where all fabrications and modifications are made to the raw steel materials. The person responsible for Act compliance may formally request this information from steel products producers and then present this information to the public agency as compliance evidence. It is also important to note that steel products producers typically will be required to attest to the accuracy of the information they provide a responsible person via a corporate officers signature and affixation of their corporate seal to a standardized form. Therefore, it is important that the corporate officer understand the processes used to research and compile the information.

Additionally, it is important to note that because steel products producers usually are not the responsible person, steel products producers most likely will not make any declarations as to whether their steel products comply with the Act. Only the responsible person should make any such declarations. It is a subtle point, but the responsible person typically is held accountable for complying with the Act, not the steel products producers. Ramifications are severe when steel products are found to be non-compliant. Responsible persons may be subjected to fund recovery, fund withholdings, and exclusion from bidding, working on, or supplying to a public works project for a period of five years. Lack of trust and integrity may be perceived and may result in additional losses for all parties. Identifying and providing the responsible person with accurate steel raw material origin and steel fabrication/modification location information will best assist the responsible person with determining whether the steel products comply with the Steel Products Procurement Act, thereby mitigating risk.