41-2534. Competitive sealed proposals

A. A contract for materials or services may be entered into by competitive sealed proposals. This section does not apply to procurement of construction, construction services or specified professional services pursuant to section 41-2537, 41-2578, 41-2579 or 41-2581. Construction services shall be procured pursuant to section 41-2537, 41-2578 or 41-2579.

B. Proposals shall be solicited through a request for proposals.

C. Adequate public notice of the request for proposals shall be given in the same manner as provided in section 41-2533.

D. Proposals shall be opened publicly at the time and place designated in the request for proposals. The name of each offeror shall be recorded in accordance with rules adopted by the director. All other information contained in the proposals shall be confidential so as to avoid disclosure of contents prejudicial to competing offerors during the process of negotiation. The proposals shall be open for public inspection after contract award. To the extent the offeror designates and the state concurs, trade secrets or other proprietary data contained in the offer documents shall remain confidential in accordance with rules adopted by the director.

E. The request for proposals shall state the relative importance of price and other evaluation factors. Specific numerical weighting is not required.

F. As provided in the request for proposals, and under rules adopted by the director, discussions may be conducted with responsible offerors who submit proposals determined to be reasonably susceptible to being selected for award for the purpose of clarification to ensure full understanding of the solicitation requirements and to permit revision of offers. Offerors shall be accorded fair treatment with respect to any opportunity for discussion. Revisions may be permitted after submission and before award. If discussions are conducted, all offerors who have submitted proposals that are determined by the procurement officer to be reasonably susceptible to being selected for award shall be invited to submit a best and final offer. In conducting discussions, there shall be no disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors.

G. The award shall be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal is determined in writing to be the most advantageous to this state taking into consideration the evaluation factors set forth in the request for proposals. No other factors or criteria may be used in the evaluation. The amount of any applicable transaction privilege or use tax of a political subdivision of this state is not a factor in determining the most advantageous proposal. The contract file shall contain the basis on which the award is made.