North Dakota Administrative Code
Title 4 - Management and Budget, Office of
Article 4-12 - State Procurement Practices
Chapter 4-12-08 - Competitive Solicitation Methods
Section 4-12-08-04 - Competitive sealed proposals

1. The following types of commodities and services, for which the use of competitive sealed bidding is either not practicable or advantageous to the state, may be procured by competitive sealed proposals without a written determination by the procurement officer:

2. Request for proposals will be issued and must include a purchase specification or statement of work, all contractual terms and conditions applicable to the procurement, and the relative importance of price and other factors or subfactors, if any.

3. Notice of the solicitation will be made in accordance with section 4-12-08-06.

4. At the specified date and time, each proposal will be opened in a manner to avoid disclosure of the contents to competing offerors. The openings may be made public at the discretion of the purchasing agency, as indicated in the request for proposal. If a public opening is held, only the names of offerors that submitted proposals can be revealed at the opening.

5. A listing of the offerors' names must be prepared, including any responses declining to submit a proposal and those proposals received late. The record of offerors' names, all the proposals, and tabulation sheets form part of the procurement file.

6. The procurement file becomes public when a notice of intent to award is issued.

7. After the initial evaluation of proposals, the procurement officer or proposal evaluation committee may meet to discuss or evaluate proposals or hold discussions with those offerors determined to be reasonably susceptible of being selected for award. A motion may be made to close the open meeting to prevent disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors. Written records of these meetings will become open records after an award of a contract has been made.

8. During the evaluation period, only the procurement officer and others specifically authorized by the procurement officer may transmit technical or other information and conduct discussions with prospective contractors. Discussions and negotiations must be conducted in accordance with 4-12-12. These discussions are for the purpose of clarification to ensure full understanding of, and responsiveness to, the solicitation requirements. In conducting discussions, any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors shall not be disclosed.

9. Offerors must 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. There must be a cutoff for the submission of revised proposals and final offers.

10. After proposals have been evaluated and the successful vendor selected, notice of intent to award must be promptly issued to all offerors that submitted proposals. Notice can be made by mail, facsimile, or electronic means. Upon issuance of this notice, the procurement file becomes an open record.