HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 653        FILED ON: 1/14/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2769

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr.

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to state government processes to verify hours worked on computers for certain government contracts.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 653        FILED ON: 1/14/2019

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2769

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

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An Act relative to state government processes to verify hours worked on computers for certain government contracts.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 7 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting the following section:-

Section 22P. (a) This section shall apply to a contract by or on behalf of a state agency or authority, as defined in section 1 of chapter twenty-nine, or any other department, board, or commission of the Commonwealth for professional or technical services in excess of one hundred thousand dollars.

(b)  A contract subject to this section must 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:

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

(2) 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 minutes;

(3) Provide to the agency or an auditor of the agency automated real-time cost status of each task;

(4) Provide to the agency professional biographical information that is not private or confidential on individuals performing state-funded work, pursuant to paragraph (5) of this section;

(5) Protect all data that is private or confidential on individuals, consistent with chapter ninety-three H and chapter ninety-three I; and

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

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

(d) 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.

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