OAR 137-047-0260: Competitive Sealed Proposals

(1) Generally. A Contracting Agency may procure Goods or Services by competitive sealed Proposals as set forth in ORS 279B.060. A Contracting Agency shall use a Request for Proposal to initiate a competitive sealed Proposal solicitation. The Request for Proposal must contain the information required by 279B.060(2) and by section (2) of this rule. The Contracting Agency shall provide public notice of the Request for Proposal as set forth in OAR 137-047-0300. (2) Request for Proposal. In addition to the provisions required by ORS 279B.060(2), the Request for Proposal must include the following: (a) General Information. (A) Notice of any pre-Offer conference as follows: (i) The time, date and location of any pre-Offer conference; (ii) Whether attendance at the conference will be mandatory or voluntary; and (iii) A provision that provides that statements made by the Contracting Agency's representatives at the conference are not binding on the Contracting Agency unless confirmed by Written Addendum. (B) The form and instructions for submission of Proposals and any other special information, e.g., whether Proposals may be submitted by electronic means. (See OAR 137-047-0330 for required provisions of electronic Proposals); (C) The time, date and place of Opening; (D) The office where the Solicitation Document may be reviewed; (E) Proposer’s certification of nondiscrimination in obtaining required subcontractors in accordance with ORS 279A.110(4). (See OAR 137-046-0210(2)); and (F) How the Contracting Agency will notify Proposers of Addenda and how the Contracting Agency will make Addenda available. (See OAR 137-047-0430). (b) Contracting Agency Need to Purchase. The character of the Goods or Services the Contracting Agency is purchasing including, if applicable, a description of the acquisition, Specifications, delivery or performance schedule, inspection and acceptance requirements. As required by ORS 279B.060(2)(c), the Contracting Agency's description of its need to purchase must: (A) Identify the scope of the work to be performed under the resulting Contract, if the Contracting Agency awards one; (B) Outline the anticipated duties of the Contractor under any resulting Contract; (C) Establish the expectations for the Contractor’s performance of any resulting Contract; and (D) Unless the Contractor under any resulting Contract will provide architectural, engineering, photogrammetric mapping, transportation planning, or land surveying services, or related services that are subject to ORS 279C.100 to 279C.125, or the Contracting Agency for Good Cause specifies otherwise, the scope of work must require the Contractor to meet the highest standards prevalent in the industry or business most closely involved in providing the Goods or Services that the Contracting Agency is purchasing. (c) Proposal and Evaluation Process. (A) The anticipated solicitation schedule, deadlines, protest process, and evaluation process; (B) The Contracting Agency shall set forth selection criteria in the Solicitation Document in accordance with the requirements of ORS 279B.060(3)(e). Evaluation criteria need not be precise predictors of actual future costs and performance, but to the extent possible, the criteria shall: (i) Afford the Contracting Agency the ability to compare the Proposals and Proposers, applying the same standards of comparison to all Proposers; (ii) Rationally reflect Proposers’ abilities to perform the resulting Contract in compliance with the Contract’s requirements; and (iii) Permit the Contracting Agency to determine the relative pricing offered by the Proposers, and to reasonably estimate the costs to the Contracting Agency of entering into a Contract based on each Proposal, considering information available to the Contracting Agency and subject to the understanding that the actual Contract costs may vary as a result of the Statement of Work ultimately negotiated or the quantity of Goods or Services for which the Contracting Agency contracts. (C) If the Contracting Agency’s solicitation process calls for the Contracting Agency to establish a Competitive Range, the Contracting Agency shall generally describe, in the Solicitation Document, the criteria or parameters the Contracting Agency will apply to determine the Competitive Range. The Contracting Agency, however, subsequently may determine or adjust the number of Proposers in the Competitive Range in accordance with OAR 137-047-0261(6). (d) Applicable Preferences, including those described in ORS 279A.120, 279A.125(2) and 282.210. (e) For Contracting Agencies subject to ORS 305.385, the Proposers’ certification of compliance with the Oregon tax laws in accordance with ORS 305.385. (f) All contractual terms and conditions the Contracting Agency determines are applicable to the Procurement. The Contracting Agency’s determination of contractual terms and conditions that are applicable to the Procurement may take into consideration, as authorized by ORS 279B.060(3), those contractual terms and conditions the Contracting Agency will not include in the Request for Proposal because the Contracting Agency either will reserve them for negotiation, or will request Proposers to offer or suggest those terms or conditions. (See OAR 137-047-0260(3)). (g) As required by ORS 279B.060(2)(h), the Contract terms and conditions must specify the consequences of the Contractor’s failure to perform the scope of work or to meet the performance standards established by the resulting Contract. Those consequences may include, but are not limited to: (A) The Contracting Agency’s reduction or withholding of payment under the Contract; (B) The Contracting Agency’s right to require the Contractor to perform, at the Contractor’s expense, any additional work necessary to perform the scope of work or to meet the performance standards established by the resulting Contract; and (C) The Contracting Agency’s rights, which the Contracting Agency may assert individually or in combination, to declare a default of the resulting Contract, to terminate the resulting Contract, and to seek damages and other relief available under the resulting Contract or applicable law. (3) The Contracting Agency may include the applicable contractual terms and conditions in the form of Contract provisions, or legal concepts to be included in the resulting Contract. Further, the Contracting Agency may specify that it will include or use Proposer’s terms and conditions that have been pre-negotiated under OAR 137-047-0550(3), but the Contracting Agency may only include or use a Proposer's pre-negotiated terms and conditions in the resulting Contract to the extent those terms and conditions do not materially conflict with the applicable contractual terms and conditions. The Contracting Agency shall not agree to any Proposer’s terms and conditions that were expressly rejected in a solicitation protest under OAR 137-047-0420. (4) For multiple Award Contracts, the Contracting Agency may enter into Contracts with different terms and conditions with each Contractor to the extent those terms and conditions do not materially conflict with the applicable contractual terms and conditions. The Contracting Agency shall not agree to any Proposer’s terms and conditions that were expressly rejected in a solicitation protest under OAR 137-047-0420. (5) Good Cause. For the purposes of this rule, “Good Cause” means a reasonable explanation for not requiring Contractor to meet the highest standards prevalent in the industry or business most closely involved in providing the Goods or Services under the Contract, and may include an explanation of circumstances that support a finding that the requirement would unreasonably limit competition or is not in the best interest of the Contracting Agency. The Contracting Agency shall document in the Procurement file the basis for the determination of Good Cause for specifying otherwise. A Contracting Agency will have Good Cause to specify otherwise when the Contracting Agency determines: (a) The use or purpose to which the Goods or Services will be put does not justify a requirement that the Contractor meet the highest prevalent standards in performing the Contract; (b) Imposing express technical, standard, dimensional or mathematical specifications will better ensure that the Goods or Services will be compatible with, or will operate efficiently or effectively with, associated information technology, hardware, software, components, equipment, parts, or on-going Services with which the Goods or Services will be used, integrated, or coordinated; (c) The circumstances of the industry or business that provides the Goods or Services are sufficiently volatile in terms of innovation or evolution of products, performance techniques, or scientific developments, that a reliable highest prevalent standard does not exist or has not been developed; (d) That other circumstances exist in which the Contracting Agency's interest in achieving economy, efficiency, compatibility or availability in the Procurement of the Goods or Services reasonably outweighs the Contracting Agency’s practical need for the highest standard prevalent in the applicable or closest industry or business that supplies the Goods or Services to be delivered under the resulting Contract.