Texas Comptroller Don Huffines has signed an executive order barring any entity with financial participation by a convicted human-trafficking offender from receiving a Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts contract or grant, according to an Oct. 29 news release from the agency.
The order extends to grants a restriction that Texas law already applies to state contracts, the agency said. Under state law, a state agency may not accept a bid or award a contract that includes financial participation by a person who, in the preceding five years, has been convicted of an offense related to the direct support or promotion of human trafficking. According to the release, that prohibition covers contracts but not grants, and the executive order closes the gap by writing an eligibility certification into every contract and grant the Comptroller’s office administers.
Under the order, every contractor and grantee must certify that it is eligible to enter the agreement under Texas Government Code Section 2155.0061, meaning that no person with financial participation in the entity has been convicted of such an offense in the preceding five years, the agency said. Contractors and grantees must also acknowledge that the Comptroller’s office may withhold payment, or terminate the agreement immediately and without further obligation, if the certification proves inaccurate.
“Human trafficking is pure evil, and Texas will not allow a single dollar of public money to flow to anyone connected to it,” Huffines said in the release. “The government’s first duty is to defend the innocent,” he said, adding that “zero tolerance means zero tolerance.”
The requirements will apply to all future contracts and grants administered by the Comptroller’s office, according to the release. The agency said it will incorporate the human-trafficking certification into all relevant solicitations and agreements going forward, with payment-withholding and immediate-termination authority written into the agreements to enforce it.
The release described the order as the latest in a series of new standard terms Huffines is writing into Comptroller contracts and grants. It follows his Oct. 13 executive order banning the use of Comptroller grant money for Flock cameras, automated license plate readers and other vehicle-identification systems; his Oct. 15 order barring taxpayer dollars for what the agency characterized as discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and his Oct. 21 order barring businesses that demand COVID-19 vaccine passports from Comptroller contracts and grants. The agency said more such announcements will come in the coming weeks.