§103D-303  Competitive sealed proposals. (a)  Competitive sealed proposals may be utilized to procure goods,services, or construction designated in rules adopted by the procurement policyboard as goods, services, or construction which are either not practicable ornot advantageous to the State to procure by competitive sealed bidding. Competitive sealed proposals may also be utilized when the head of a purchasingagency determines in writing that the use of competitive sealed bidding iseither not practicable or not advantageous to the State.

(b)  Proposals shall be solicited through arequest for proposals.

(c)  Notice of the request for proposals shallbe given in the same manner as provided in section 103D-302(c).

(d)  Proposals shall be opened so as to avoiddisclosure of contents to competing offerors during the process ofnegotiation.  A register of proposals shall be prepared in accordance withrules adopted by the policy board and shall be open for public inspection aftercontract award.

(e)  The request for proposals shall state therelative importance of price and other evaluation factors.

(f)  Discussions may be conducted withresponsible offerors who submit proposals determined to be reasonablysusceptible of being selected for award for the purpose of clarification toassure full understanding of, and responsiveness to, the solicitationrequirements.  Offerors shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with respectto any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals, and revisions maybe permitted after submissions and prior to award for the purpose of obtainingbest and final offers.  In conducting discussions, there shall be no disclosureof any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors.

(g)  Award shall be made to the responsibleofferor whose proposal is determined in writing to be the most advantageoustaking into consideration price and the evaluation factors set forth in therequest for proposals.  No other factors or criteria shall be used in the evaluation. The contract file shall contain the basis on which the award is made.

(h)  In cases of awards made under thissection, nonselected offerors may submit a written request for debriefing tothe chief procurement officer or designee within three working days after theposting of the award of the contract.  Thereafter, the head of the purchasingagency shall provide the requester a prompt debriefing in accordance with rulesadopted by the policy board.  Any protest by the requester pursuant to section103D-701 following debriefing shall be filed in writing with the chiefprocurement officer or designee within five working days after the date thatthe debriefing is completed. [L Sp 1993, c 8, pt of §2; am L 1995, c 178, §§8,9; am L 1997, c 352, §23; am L 2003, c 52, §4]