Michigan FOIA Knowledge Center
Michigan Government Contracts, Bids, Invoices, and Payments
The signed contract is often only the beginning. To understand what government bought and what it received, follow the procurement from solicitation through payment and performance.
The procurement chain
Request the solicitation, questions and answers, bids or proposals, evaluation criteria, evaluator score sheets, award recommendation, executed contract, amendments, statements of work, purchase orders, invoices, payment records, deliverables, and performance communications.
Timing and bid exemptions
Michigan FOIA contains a targeted exemption for bids or proposals before public opening or the submission deadline. That timing rationale ordinarily changes after the procurement reaches the specified point.
Commercial information
Vendors may assert confidentiality or trade-secret concerns, but government-contract submissions are not categorically secret. Ask the public body to identify particular withheld information and the precise exemption.
Electronic payment data
For broad spending analysis, request an existing accounts-payable export with vendor, date, amount, fund, department, purchase-order number, and description fields, plus a data dictionary.
Follow the money past the signature page
The executed agreement explains the bargain; invoices and payment data show what happened afterward. Amendments, change orders, deliverables, acceptance records, and performance communications may show whether scope, price, timing, or expectations changed.
For a large procurement, stage the work. Start with the solicitation, award recommendation, signed contract, amendments, and payment ledger. Those records will identify dates, decision-makers, vendors, and project names for a narrower second request.
Requester checklist
- Solicitation
- All proposals
- Scoring and recommendation
- Contract and amendments
- Invoices and payments
- Deliverables/performance
Primary sources
External authorities control. Confirm the current statute, decision, policy, and local procedures before relying on them.