5-18A-7. Procedures for competitive sealed proposals. The procedures for issuing a contract through competitive sealed proposals are as follows:

(1) The proposals shall be solicited through a request for proposals. The request for proposals shall state the relative importance of price and other factors, if any;

(2) Public notice of the request for proposals shall be given pursuant to § 5-18A-14;

(3) A proposal may be submitted either manually or electronically in a manner authorized by the purchasing agency;

(4) Each proposal 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 documenting the name and address of each offeror and identifying each offeror awarded a contract. The register shall be open for public inspection after contract award;

(5) As provided in the request for proposals, a discussion may be conducted with any responsible offeror who submitted a proposal 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. Each offeror shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for discussion and revision of a proposal. A revision may be permitted after a submission and prior to an award for the purpose of obtaining the best and final offer. In conducting any discussion, there may be no disclosure of any information derived from any proposal submitted by a competing offeror;

(6) An award shall be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal conforms to the solicitation and is determined in writing to be the most advantageous to the purchasing agency taking into consideration price and the evaluation factors set forth in the request for proposals. No other factors or criteria may be used in the evaluation. The contract file shall contain the basis on which the award is made. Written notice of the award of a contract to the successful offeror shall be promptly given to each offeror. The purchasing agency may reject any and all proposals and readvertise for proposals if none of the proposals are satisfactory, or if the purchasing agency believes any agreement has been entered into by the offerors to prevent competition; and

(7) This section does not apply to state professional service contracts issued pursuant to § 5-18A-37 and §§ 5-18D-17 to 5-18D-24, inclusive.Source: SL 2010, ch 31, § 8.