All questions must be e-mailed to Teresa Shipton, tshipto@siue.edu by May 22, 2020, 12:00 p.m. prevailing time. Questions submitted after this date/time may not receive a response. Answers to all questions will be addressed in the form of an addendum and will be posted on the Illinois Higher Education Procurement Bulletin website, www.procure.stateuniv.state.il.us. Questions should not be addressed to any other SIUE or Oates representative. If contact of any kind occurs with any other representative, this will be grounds for disqualification.

All resulting contracts issued against this bid will have required terms to provide full compliance with Illinois Public Act 96-0795. These terms will apply to the awarded contractor and their subcontractors and include but are not limited to disclosure of financial interests, annual certifications and filing of subcontracts.

Bidders who have not completed and returned their prequalification statement which is valid for the period January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, will be required to prequalify in accordance with the bidding contract provision - Document PQ00250 Prequalification Documents. Firms may verify their prequalification status by contacting Teresa Shipton at (618) 650-3384. The prequalification document will be due at the SIUE Purchasing Office a minimum of three days prior to the bid opening. Bids will not be accepted from Contractors who have not submitted and received approval of the SIUE Prequalification Statement. The 2020 SIUE Prequalification Documents may be downloaded on the Bulletin under RFI 2020SIUEPrequal.

In addition to completing SIUE's prequalification statement, all bidders may qualify to submit bids to state universities of Illinois only if they are a legal entity authorized to do business in Illinois prior to submitting the bid. All first-tier subcontractors also meet this requirement. This applies to both in-state and out-of-state firms. Failure to provide the Certificate of Good Standing (or other qualifications as noted in the form included with this document) with your bid will result in your bid being considered as non-responsive.

The successful bidder will be required to comply with all laws, statutes, regulations, ordinances, rulings or enactments of any governmental authority which are applicable to the work or to the project. The successful bidder shall pay current prevailing wage rates as posted on the Illinois Department of Labor's website and shall utilize equal employment opportunity hiring practices in connection with this project. The University reserves the right to reject any and all bids.

All responses must include:

• Sealed envelopes containing the bids have the bid number and project title on the envelope.
• Bid security (see complete bid for details).
• A letter from a surety company in substantially the form set forth in the Instructions to Bidders assuring the issuance of the performance and payment bonds.
• There is a 20 percent BEP goal for this procurement. See solicitation documentation for details.
  
• There is a 3 percent Veteran-owned business goal for this procurement. See solicitation documentation for details.