§103D-303 - Competitive sealed proposals.

§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 policy
board as goods, services, or construction which are either not practicable or
not advantageous to the State to procure by competitive sealed bidding.
Competitive sealed proposals may also be utilized when the head of a purchasing
agency determines in writing that the use of competitive sealed bidding is
either not practicable or not advantageous to the State.

(b) Proposals shall be solicited through a
request for proposals.

(d) Proposals shall be opened so as to avoid
disclosure of contents to competing offerors during the process of
negotiation. A register of proposals shall be prepared in accordance with
rules adopted by the policy board and shall be open for public inspection after
contract award.

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

(f) Discussions may be conducted with
responsible offerors who submit proposals determined to be reasonably
susceptible of being selected for award for the purpose of clarification to
assure full understanding of, and responsiveness to, the solicitation
requirements. Offerors shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect
to any opportunity for discussion and revision of proposals, and revisions may
be permitted after submissions and prior to award for the purpose of obtaining
best and final offers. In conducting discussions, there shall be no disclosure
of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors.

(g) Award shall be made to the responsible
offeror whose proposal is determined in writing to be the most advantageous
taking into consideration price and the evaluation factors set forth in the
request 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 this
section, nonselected offerors may submit a written request for debriefing to
the chief procurement officer or designee within three working days after the
posting of the award of the contract. Thereafter, the head of the purchasing
agency shall provide the requester a prompt debriefing in accordance with rules
adopted by the policy board. Any protest by the requester pursuant to section
103D-701 following debriefing shall be filed in writing with the chief
procurement officer or designee within five working days after the date that
the 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]