Emergency Extension Legacy Phone Maintenance

The State of Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology is issuing an emergency contract extension notice for Telecom Legacy Phone Maintenance Services, with a posted date of April 28, 2026, and a notice deadline of May 15, 2026. This emergency procurement extension authorizes continued engagement with the incumbent contractor to maintain critical legacy telephone systems operating across hundreds of Illinois state facilities, with the majority located in Department of Corrections institutions. The scope of work encompasses provision of parts, maintenance, and repair services for legacy telephone systems that support essential operational and public safety functions; any service interruption or degradation would impact public health and safety operations. The contract extension runs from May 1, 2026, through July 31, 2026, with an estimated value of $700,000. The emergency extension was necessitated because three previous competitive solicitations (B-47777, B-48792, and B-51076) failed to generate responsive bids, leaving the state without viable procurement alternatives. The Department of Innovation and Technology is simultaneously developing a revised solicitation utilizing direct solicitation methods to enhance vendor interest and plans to complete this new competitive procurement within 90 days.

Ficek Electric & Communication Systems, Inc., is the incumbent contractor and current extension recipient, and is certified and active within the Illinois Business Enterprise Program. The contract extension approval was granted by the Chief Procurement Officer on April 28, 2026, with the determination that denial would pose significant risk to public health and safety by eliminating the only available procurement pathway for essential telephone system maintenance services. This represents the third extension of the original emergency contract, which began May 1, 2025; previous extensions ran from July 31, 2025, to January 31, 2026 (valued at $1,376,111.50) and from February 1, 2026, to April 30, 2026 (valued at $700,000). The cumulative contract value across all periods, including the current extension, totals approximately $3,464,167.25. This emergency procurement pathway remains in effect until the Department of Innovation and Technology successfully completes a new competitive solicitation incorporating feedback from previous bidders and input from the revised Telecom Leadership team.