18-554 C.M.R. ch. 110, § 3 - AWARD

A. The contracting agency is responsible for reviewing all RFP's based on the criteria established within the original Request for Proposal document. The agency shall document the scoring, substantive information that supports the scoring, and make the award decision which shall be subject to the Contract Review Committee approval.

i. Interviews/Presentations: Interviews and/or presentations may be considered within the review for information and scoring, if that provision was included within the original RFP documentation.

ii. Pricing/Negotiations: Pricing changes, alterations or negotiations are not allowed prior to the award decision and must not be used in scoring. Minor negotiations after notice of award are allowed and if agreement cannot be reached, the proposal may be rejected and the award made to the next highest rated bidder who was in compliance with all terms, conditions and requirements.

iii. Documentation: Written records must be kept by each person reviewing or ranking proposals. These records must be made available upon request.

iv. Award: Award must be made to the highest rated proposal which conforms to the requirements of the state as contained in the RFP.

v. Proposed Award Decision Notification: Contracting agency must notify all bidders responding to an RFP of the award decision in writing, postmarked or delivered a minimum of fourteen (14) calendar days prior to contract effective date. This notice must include a statement that the award is conditional pending Contract Review Committee approval.

The award decision, a copy of the award notification to bidders, supporting justification of award, individual and summarized scoring and a minimum of four contracts with the state agency head and vendor authorized original signatures must be sent to the Contract Review Committee for final review and approval a minimum of fourteen (14) calendar days prior to contract effective date.

B. Upon final approval by the Contract Review Committee, the Chairman shall affix an original signature to the contracts, keep one copy, and forward to Accounts and Control for final approval of encumbrance, terms, and account coding. The Controller will keep one copy and the remaining copies shall be returned to the contracting agency for distribution to vendor.

i. Contracts are not considered fully executed and valid before completing final approval of encumbrance. No contract will be approved based on an RFP which has an effective date less than fourteen (14) calendar days after award notification to bidders.

ii. Attorney General approval is not required unless changes have been made to existing boilerplate or at the request of the Contract Review Committee. Nothing within this paragraph prevents agency requests for Attorney General review of any contract.

Notes

18-554 C.M.R. ch. 110, § 3