North Dakota Code 54-44.4-10 – Competitive sealed proposals – Exempt records
1. A contract for commodities or services may be entered by competitive sealed proposals when a determination is made that the use of competitive sealed bidding is either not practicable or not advantageous to the state. The request for proposal must state the relative importance of price and other factors and subfactors, if any.
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 54-44.4-10
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- written: include "typewriting" and "typewritten" and "printing" and "printed" except in the case of signatures and when the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See North Dakota Code 1-01-37
2. Proposals must be opened so as to avoid disclosure of contents to competing offerors during the process of negotiation. All proposals received pursuant to a competitive sealed proposal process are exempt records under subsection 5 of section 44-04-17.1 until an award is made.
3. Discussions may be conducted with responsible offerors who submit proposals 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. 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 before award for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers. In conducting discussions, there may be no disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors.
4. Unless all proposals are rejected, award must be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal conforms to the solicitation and is determined, in writing, to be the most advantageous to the state, 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 must contain the basis on which the award is made. Written notice of the award of the contract to the successful offeror must be promptly given to all offerors.