Employment Security Dept. Number

The new bidder responsibility legislation, which became effective on July 22nd, requires that public agencies verify that a bidder with a low responsive bid is "responsible" and meets the mandatory criteria outlined in the law (SHB 2010) before awarding a contract. One of the criteria is that the bidder must, if applicable, have an Employment Security Department number. Because this information is not publicly available through a website to verify, like other mandatory criteria, I have chosen at the University of Washington, to add a line to the UW's bid form asking bidders to include this information. The language in our Instructions to Bidders then reserves the right to ask a bidder for additional information verifying that they have an Employment Security Department number (or other required numbers). We will decide on a case-by-case basis whether we need to obtain this further validation that the bidder actually has an Employment Security Department number.