§ 2-420. Prohibitions.
A. Split Contracts. It shall be unlawful for any official, employee, agent, contractor, or subcontractor of the Nation to allow a contract to be split into partial contracts for the purpose of circumventing or attempting to circumvent the competitive bidding requirements established by this Act, provided this provision shall not otherwise prohibit the Nation from soliciting bids and letting separate contract awards for specialized portions of a construction project in good faith.
B. Buy-In Contracts Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any contractor to submit an offer below anticipated costs, expecting to:
1. Increase the contract amount after award (e.g., through unnecessary or excessively priced change orders); or
2. Receive follow-on contracts at inflated prices to recover losses incurred on the buy-in contract.
C. Offer of Kick-Backs Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person or entity seeking to do business with the Osage Nation to offer any money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, thing of value, or compensation of any kind which is provided, directly or indirectly, to any official or employee of the Nation or any contractor, subcontractor, or employees of contractors or subcontractors for the purpose of improperly obtaining or rewarding favorable treatment in connection with a contract or subcontract.
D. Acceptance of Kick-Backs Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any official, employee, agent, contractor, or subcontractor of the Nation to solicit, accept, or attempt to accept any money, fee, commission, credit, gift, gratuity, thing of value, or compensation of any kind from a person or entity seeking to enter into a contract or subcontract subject to the provisions of this Act.
E. Improper Influence Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for any person or entity to otherwise seek to improperly influence an official or employee of the Nation to give consideration or to act regarding a contract or subcontract on any basis other than the merits of the matter.
F. Collusion Prohibited. Any agreement or collusion among bidders, prospective bidders or material suppliers in restraint of freedom of competition by agreement to bid at a fixed price or to refrain from bidding, or otherwise, shall render the bids of such bidders void.
G. Prohibition on Circumvention. It shall be unlawful for any official or employee of the Nation to seek to circumvent any provision of this Act, including but not limited to:
1. The declaration of any emergency;
2. Disclosure of the terms of a bid submitted in response to a bid notice issued by a Procurement Officer in advance of the time set for opening of all bids;
3. Withholding or impeding the distribution of said information after notice of the bid has been given, unless the solicitation of bids has been withdrawn or the particular information in question has been deleted or replaced through alteration of the bid notice and said withdrawal has been made equally and uniformly known.
H. Prohibition on Solicitation, Possession, and Receipt. It shall be unlawful for any person or entity to solicit, posses, or receive information which is to be contained in a bid notice of a Procurement Officer, for use in preparing a bid, in advance of the date on which said bid notice is to be made equally and uniformly known to all prospective bidders and the public. ONCA 07-57, eff. Apr. 18, 2008; ONCA 14-31, eff. May 30, 2014; ONCA 16-06, eff. Dec. 22, 2015.