The purchases of and contracts for supplies, materials, equipment and contractual services and all sales of personal property which has become obsolete or unusable shall be based on competitive bids. If the amount involved is estimated to exceed $10,000, sealed bids shall be solicited by public notice inserted at least once in a newspaper of countywide circulation and at least five calendar days before the final date of submitting bids. Such notices shall include a general description of the commodities or contractual services to be purchased or personal property to be sold and shall state where all blanks and specifications may be obtained and the time and place for the opening of bids. The county purchasing agent may also solicit sealed bids by sending requests by mail to prospective suppliers and by posting notices on a public bulletin board in his office. If supplies, materials, equipment, and contractual services can be obtained through, or are manufactured or produced by, persons confined in institutions and facilities of the Illinois Department of Corrections, the county purchasing agent is expressly required to solicit sealed bids from the Illinois Department of Corrections for such supplies, materials, equipment, and contractual services by sending requests for bids by mail to the Illinois Department of Corrections. All purchases or sales of $10,000 or less may be made in the open market without publication in a newspaper as above provided, but whenever practical shall be based on at least three competitive bids. All sales of obsolete or unusable material shall be made to the highest responsible bidder. Wherever the Board of Standardization hereinafter provided for shall have prescribed standard specifications, bids on purchases of supplies, materials and equipment shall be based on such standard specifications. All purchases, orders or contracts shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, taking into consideration the qualities of the articles supplied, their conformity with the specifications, their suitability to the requirements of the county and the delivery terms. All bids may be rejected and new bids solicited if the public interest may be served thereby. In all cases where the amount of the expenditure, or sales price of obsolete and unusable equipment, exceeds $10,000, the Board of Commissioners shall not approve any purchase or order or contract or sale except on the recommendation of the county purchasing agent unless the recommendation of the county purchasing agent and the reasons for not accepting his recommendation are spread at large on the published records of the Board of Commissioners. Each bid, with the name of the bidder, shall be entered on a record, which record with the successful bid indicated thereon shall, after the award of the purchase or order or contract, be open to public inspection. A copy of all contracts shall be filed with the County Comptroller and with the county purchasing agent.
     Contracts which by their nature are not adapted to award by competitive bidding, such as contracts for the services of individuals possessing a high degree of professional skill where the ability or fitness of the individual plays an important part, contracts for printing of Finance Committee pamphlets, Comptroller’s estimates, and departmental reports, contracts for the printing or engraving of bonds, tax warrants and other evidences of indebtedness, contracts for utility services such as water, light, heat, telephone or telegraph, and contracts for the purchase of magazines, books, periodicals and similar articles of an educational or instructional nature, and the binding of such magazines, books, periodicals, pamphlets, reports and similar articles shall not be subject to the competitive bidding requirements of this Section. The purchasing agent is expressly authorized to procure from any federal, state or local governmental unit or agency thereof such surplus materials, supplies, commodities or equipment as may be made available through the operation of any legislation heretofore or hereafter enacted without conforming to the competitive bidding requirements of this Section. Regular employment contracts in the county service, whether with respect to the classified service or otherwise, shall not be subject to the provisions of this Section nor shall this Section be applicable to the granting or issuance pursuant to powers conferred by laws, ordinances or resolutions, of franchises, licenses, permits or other authorizations by the county board, or by departments, offices, institutions, boards, commissions, agencies or other instrumentalities of the county, nor to contracts or transactions, other than the sale or lease of personal property, pursuant to which the county is the recipient of money.
     The provisions of this Section are subject to any contrary provision contained in “An Act concerning the use of Illinois mined coal in certain plants and institutions”, filed July 13, 1937, as heretofore or hereafter amended.