Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 38, September 20, 2024
a) Application
The provisions of this Section apply to every procurement of
professional and artistic services except those professional and other services
necessary to prepare for anticipated litigation, enforcement actions or
investigations, which are exempt from the requirements of the Code and this
Part. "Professional and artistic services" means those services
provided under contract to a State agency by a person or business, acting as an
independent contractor, qualified by education, experience, and technical
ability [30 ILCS 525/1-15.60 ].
b) Professional and artistic
services are further defined as follows:
1)
"Qualified by education" means the individual who would perform the services
must have obtained the level of education specified in the RFP.
2) "Qualified by experience" means the
individual who would perform the services must have the level of general
experience specified in the RFP.
3)
"Qualified by technical ability" means the individual who would perform the
services must demonstrate a high degree of skill or ability in performing
services that are the same, similar or closely related in nature to those
specified in the RFP.
4) An
essential element distinguishing professional and artistic services from other
services is confidence, trust, and belief in not only the ability, but the
talent, of the individual performing the service. These services are primarily
for intellectual or creative skills. Contracts for services primarily involving
manual skills or labor are not professional and artistic services contracts.
(See Illinois Attorney General Opinion S-256, January 20, 1971.)
5) If the professional or artistic contract
is with a firm or other business entity, the individuals whose education,
experience and technical ability provided the basis on which the firm or other
business entity was selected must meet the qualifications.
6) When a State agency requires services that
meet the requirements of this subsection (b), the competitive selection
procedures described in this Section must be followed. Services that do not
meet the requirements of this Section must be procured in accordance with other
methods of source selection authorized by the Code and this Part.
c) The categories of services
enumerated below shall be considered and procured as professional and artistic
services. With regard to other services, the Purchasing Officer may determine
whether the factors identified in subsection (b), when applied to particular
services to be procured, require such services to be procured as professional
and artistic under these competitive selection procedures, or as services that
are subject to one of the other methods of source selection authorized by the
Code and this Part. The following categories are examples of disciplines that
would always be professional and artistic services:
1) law;
2) accounting;
3) medicine;
4) dentistry; and
5) clinical psychology.
d) Conditions for Use of Competitive
Selection Procedures
Except as authorized under Section 20-25 (Sole Source
Procurement) or Section 20-30 (Emergency Procurements) of the Code, these
competitive selection procedures shall be used for all procurements of
professional and artistic services of $20,000 or more. Any procurement of such
services in an amount of less than $20,000 and for a nonrenewable term of less
than one year may be procured in accordance with Section
1300.2020 (Small Purchases) of
this Part.
e)
Determinations Required Prior to Use of Competitive Selection Procedures
The CPO shall determine in writing, prior to announcing the
need for any such services:
1) that
the services to be acquired are professional or artistic;
2) the nature of the relationship to be
established between the OAG and the vendor by the proposed contract;
and
3) that the OAG has developed,
and fully intends to implement, a written plan for utilizing such services
which will be included in the contractual statement of work.
f) Prequalification
The CPO shall maintain a list of prequalified professional
and artistic vendors in accordance with Sections
1300.2044 and
1300.2045 of this Part. Persons
may amend statements of qualifications at any time by filing a new
statement.
g) Public Notice
in Competitive Selection Procedures
Notice of the need for professional and artistic services
shall be made by the Procurement Officer in the form of an RFP. Adequate public
notice shall be given as provided in Section
1300.2010 (Competitive Sealed
Bidding, Public Notice), and additionally may consist of distributing Requests
for Proposals to prequalified persons interested in performing the services
required by the proposed contract.
h) Request for Proposals
1) Contents. The RFP shall be in the form
specified by the CPO and contain at least the following information:
A) the type of services required;
B) a description of the work
involved;
C) an estimate of when
and for how long the services will be required;
D) the type of contract to be used;
E) a date by which proposals for the
performance of the services shall be submitted;
F) a statement of the minimum information
that the proposal shall contain, which shall include:
i) the name of the offer or, the location of
the offeror's principal place of business and, if different, the place of
performance of the proposed contract;
ii) if deemed relevant by the Procurement
Officer, the age of the offeror's business and average number of employees over
a previous period of time, as specified in the RFP;
iii) the abilities, qualifications, and
experience of all persons who would be assigned to provide the required
services;
iv) a listing of other
contracts under which services similar in scope, size, or discipline to the
required services were performed or undertaken within a previous period of
time, as specified in the RFP;
v) a
plan giving as much detail as is practical explaining how the services will be
performed;
G) price (to
be submitted in a separate envelope in the proposal package and not mentioned
elsewhere in the proposal package); and
H) the factors to be used in the evaluation
and selection process and their relative importance.
2) Evaluation. Proposals shall be evaluated
only on the basis of evaluation factors stated in the RFP. Price will not be
evaluated until after selection of the most qualified vendor. The relative
importance of the evaluation factors will vary according to the type of
services being procured. The minimum factors are:
A) the plan for performing the required
services;
B) ability to perform the
services as reflected by technical training and education, general experience,
specific experience in providing the required services, and the qualifications
and abilities of personnel proposed to be assigned to perform the
services;
C) the personnel,
equipment, and facilities to perform the services currently available or
demonstrated to be made available at the time of contracting; and
D) a record of past performance of similar
work.
i)
Pre-Proposal Conferences
Pre-proposal conferences, as appropriate, may be conducted in
accordance with Section
1300.2010 (Competitive Sealed
Bidding).
j) Receipt and
Handling of Proposals
Registration. Proposals and modifications shall be sent to
the Procurement Officer as directed in the solicitation and shall be
time-stamped upon receipt and held in a secure place until the established due
date and time, at which time they will be opened by the Procurement Officer.
Proposals shall not be opened publicly nor disclosed to unauthorized persons,
but shall be opened in the presence of at least one witness. A register of
proposals shall be established which shall include, for all proposals, the name
of each offeror, the number of modifications received, if any, and a
description sufficient to identify the services offered. The register of
proposals shall be open to public inspection only after award of the
contract.
k) Request for
Nondisclosure of Data
If the offeror selected for award has requested in writing
the nondisclosure of trade secrets and other proprietary data so identified,
the head of the agency conducting the procurement or a designee of such officer
shall examine the request in the proposal to determine its validity prior to
entering negotiations. If the parties do not agree as to the disclosure of data
in the contract, the Procurement Officer shall reject the proposal.
l) Discussions
1) Discussions Permissible. The Procurement
Officer shall evaluate all proposals submitted and may conduct discussions with
any offeror. The purposes of such discussions shall be to:
A) determine in greater detail such offeror's
qualifications; and
B) explore with
the offeror the scope and nature of the required services, the offeror's
proposed method of performance, and the relative utility of alternative methods
of approach.
2) No
Disclosure of Information. Discussions shall not disclose any information
derived from proposals submitted by other offerors, and the agency conducting
the procurement shall not disclose any information contained in any proposals
until after award of the proposed contract has been made. The proposal of the
offeror awarded the contract shall be open to public inspection.
m) Selection of the Best Qualified
Offerors
After conclusion of validation of qualifications, evaluation,
and discussion, the Procurement Officer shall rank the acceptable offerors in
the order of their respective qualifications.
n) Evaluation of Pricing Data
Pricing submitted for all acceptable proposals shall be
opened and ranked. If the low price is submitted by the most qualified vendor,
negotiation of price shall commence. If the price of the most qualified is not
low and if it is under $25,000, the Procurement Officer, but not a designee,
may award to that vendor. If the price is over $25,000, the Procurement
Officer, but not a designee, must state why the qualifications were deemed more
important than price and such determination shall be published in the
Bulletin.
o) Negotiation
and Award of Contract
1) General. The
Procurement Officer shall negotiate a contract with the best qualified offeror
for the required services at compensation determined in writing to be fair and
reasonable.
2) Elements of
Negotiation. Contract negotiations shall be directed toward:
A) making certain that the offeror has a
clear understanding of the scope of the work, specifically, the essential
requirements involved in providing the required services;
B) determining that the offeror will make
available the necessary personnel and facilities to perform the services within
the required time; and
C) agreeing
upon compensation that is fair and reasonable, taking into account the
estimated value of the required services, and the scope, complexity, and nature
of such services.
3)
Successful Negotiation of Contract with Best Qualified Offeror. If
compensation, contract requirements, and contract documents can be agreed upon
with the best qualified offeror, the contract shall be awarded to that offeror,
unless the procurement is cancelled.
4) Failure to Negotiate Contract with Best
Qualified Offeror.
A) If compensation,
contract requirements, or contract documents cannot be agreed upon with the
best qualified offeror, a written record stating the reasons for the lack of
agreement shall be placed in the file and the Procurement Officer shall advise
the offeror of the termination of negotiations.
B) Upon failure to negotiate a contract with
the best qualified offeror, the Procurement Officer may enter into negotiations
with the next most qualified offeror, and so on in that manner until an award
is made or the procurement is cancelled.
p) Notice of Award
Written notice of award shall be public information and made
a part of the contract file. The CPO shall publish the names of the responsible
decision makers of the OAG, the successful vendor, a contract reference number
or other identifier, and the value of the contract. Publication shall be in the
next available issue of the Bulletin.
q) A CPO may allow the Purchasing Officer
responsible for conducting a small, sole source or emergency procurement of
professional and artistic services to publish notices of those
procurements.
r) Post Performance
Review
The Purchasing Officer shall require the using division to
provide a synopsis of the contract and shall rate the vendor's performance
using the form developed by the Purchasing Officer. A copy of the completed
form shall be provided to the Purchasing Officer.
