Senate Bill 2879

AN ACT TO PROVIDE LEGISLATIVE INTENT; TO REQUIRE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS TO USE SOFTWARE TO VERIFY THAT HOURS BILLED FOR WORK UNDER THE CONTRACT THAT ARE PERFORMED ON A COMPUTER ARE LEGITIMATE; TO PROVIDE CERTAIN SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS USED BY GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. The Legislature recognizes that an increasing amount of government contracts require the use of computers, a virtual office or online activity. The Legislature further recognizes the difficulty in verifying hours worked on computers for government contracts. Therefore, the Legislature intends to establish a secure and transparent process to verify hours worked on computers for government contracts to prevent abuse and overbilling.

SECTION 2. (1) This section shall apply only to a contract by or on behalf of any department, agency, the executive or political subdivision of the state, for professional or technical services in excess of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000.00).

(2) A contract subject to this section may require a contractor to use software to verify that hours billed for work under the contract that are performed on a computer are legitimate. The contract must specify that the agency will not pay for hours worked on a computer unless those hours are verifiable by the software or by data collected by the software. The software must do the following:

(a) Permit the agency or an auditor of the agency to have real-time or retroactive access to data collected or provided by the software;

(b) Automatically gather verification data of state-funded activity by tracking total keystroke and mouse event frequency and taking a screenshot at least once every three (3) minutes;

(d) Provide to the agency professional biographical information;

(e) Must protect all data that is private or confidential on individuals, consistent with Section 75-24-9; and

(f) Permit the agency to provide immediate feedback to the contractor on work in progress.

(3) The data collected by the software shall be considered accounting records belonging to the contractor. The contractor must store, or contract with another to store, the data collected by the software for a period of seven (7) years and provide the access to the contracting agency or state auditors on their request.

(4) The contractor must not charge the agency or an auditor of the agency for access to or use of the work verification software, or for access to or retrievals of data collected by the software.

(5) Software used under this section must be procured by the contractor from an independent entity.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.