(a) The bidder shall be required to file with his or her bid either a cashier's check drawn on an Alabama bank or a bid bond executed by a surety company duly authorized and qualified to make such bonds in the State of Alabama, payable to the awarding authority for an amount not less than five percent of the awarding authority's estimated cost or of the contractor's bid, but in no event more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), except if the awarding authority is the Department of Transportation, then the bid guarantee shall not be more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). The bid guaranties as provided in this section shall constitute all of the qualifications or guaranty to be required of contractors as prerequisites to bidding for public works, except as required by the State Licensing Board for General Contractors and the prequalification as required by the Department of Transportation, the Building Commission, or any other awarding authority.

(b) With the exception of the Department of Transportation which has prequalification procedures and criteria set forth by statute, any awarding authority that proposes to prequalify bidders shall establish written prequalification procedures and criteria that: (1) are published sufficiently in advance of any affected contract so that a bona fide bidder may seek and obtain prequalification prior to preparing a bid for that contract, such publication to be accomplished by the methods specified in subsection (a) of Section 39-2-2; (2) are related to the purpose of the contract or contracts affected; (3) are related to contract requirements or the quality of the product or service in question; (4) are related to the responsibility, including the competency, experience, and financial ability, of a bidder; and (5) will permit reasonable competition at a level that serves the public interest. The prequalification publication may run concurrently with the publication required under subsection (a) of Section 39-2-2, provided it produces the above required advance notice.

(c) Within the bounds of good faith, the awarding authority retains the right to determine whether a contractor has met prequalification procedures and criteria.

(d) Any bidder who has prequalified pursuant to the requirements in subsection (b) shall be deemed responsible for purposes of award unless the prequalification is revoked by the awarding authority under the following procedures: (1) No later than five working days or the next regular meeting after the opening of bids, the awarding authority issues written notice to the bidder of its intent to revoke prequalification and the grounds therefor; (2) the bidder is then provided an opportunity to be heard before the awarding authority on the intended revocation; (3) the awarding authority makes a good faith showing of a material inaccuracy in the prequalification application of a bidder or of a material change in the responsibility of the bidder since submitting its prequalification application; and (4) the revocation of prequalification is determined no later than 10 days after written notice of intent to revoke, unless the bidder whose qualification is in question agrees in writing to an extension in time.

(e) Nothing in this section shall preclude the rejection of a bidder determined not responsible nor the inclusion of criteria in the bid documents which would limit contract awards to responsible bidders where no prequalification procedure is employed by the awarding authority.