R33-7-703. Evaluation Committee Procedures for Scoring Non-Priced Technical Criteria

  Evaluation committee members, employees of procurement units, and any other person involved in an RFP evaluation process are required to review Utah Code Title 63G-6a, Parts 7 and 24; and Section R33-7-703 prior to participating in the evaluation process.

  (1)(a) In accordance with Section 63G-6a-704, the conducting procurement unit may conduct a review of proposals to determine if:

  (i) the person submitting the proposal is responsible;

  (ii) the proposal is responsive; and

  (iii) the proposal meets the mandatory minimum requirements set forth in the RFP.

  (b) An evaluation committee may not evaluate proposals deemed non-responsive or not meeting the mandatory minimum requirements of the RFP, or vendors determined to be not responsible.

  (2)(a) Prior to the evaluation and scoring of proposals, an employee from the issuing procurement unit will meet with the evaluation committee, staff members of the conducting procurement unit, and any other person involved in the procurement process that may have access to the proposals to:

  (i) Explain the evaluation and scoring process;

  (ii) Discuss requirements and prohibitions pertaining to:

  (A) socialization with vendors as set forth in Section R33-24-104;

  (B) financial conflicts of interest as set forth in Section R33-24-105;

  (C) personal relationships, favoritism, or bias as set forth in Section R33-24-106;

  (D) disclosing confidential information contained in proposals or the deliberations and scoring of the evaluation committee; and

  (E) ethical standards for an employee of a procurement unit involved in the procurement process as set forth in Section R33-24-108.

  (iii) review the scoring sheet and evaluation criteria set forth in the RFP; and

  (iv) provide a copy of Section R33-7-703 to the evaluation committee, employees of the procurement unit involved in the procurement, and any other person that will have access to the proposals.

  (b) Prior to participating in any phase of the RFP process, all members of the evaluation committee must sign a written statement certifying that they do not have a conflict of interest as set forth in Section 63G-6a-707 and Section R33-24-107.

  (i) At each stage of the procurement process, the conducting procurement unit is required to ensure that evaluation committee members, employees of the procurement unit and any other person participating in the procurement process:

  (A) do not have a conflict of interest with any of the offerors;

  (B) do not contact or communicate with an offeror concerning the procurement outside the official procurement process; and

  (C) conduct or participate in the procurement process in a manner that ensures a fair and competitive process and avoids the appearance of impropriety.

  (3) Unless an exception is authorized by the head of the issuing procurement unit, the evaluation committee is prohibited from knowing, or having access to, any information relating to the cost, or the scoring of the cost, of a proposal until after the evaluation committee has finalized its scoring of non-price technical criteria for each proposal and submitted those scores to the issuing procurement unit as set forth in Section 63G-6a-707.

  (4)(a) In accordance with Section 63G-6a-707, the conducting procurement unit shall appoint an evaluation committee to evaluate each responsive proposal submitted by a responsible offeror that has not been rejected from consideration under the provisions of the Utah Procurement Code, using the criteria described in the RFP.

  (b) Using the provisions set forth in Section R33-7-705, the evaluation committee shall exercise independent judgement in the evaluation and scoring of the non-priced technical criteria in each proposal.

  (c) Proposals must be evaluated solely on the criteria listed in the RFP. The evaluation committee shall assess each proposal's completeness, accuracy, and capability of meeting the technical criteria listed in the RFP.

  (d) The evaluation committee may receive assistance from an expert or consultant authorized by the conducting procurement unit in accordance with the provisions set forth in Section 63G-6a-707(4).

  (e) The evaluation committee may enter into discussions, conduct interviews with, or attend presentations by responsible offerors with responsive proposals that meet the mandatory minimum requirements of the RFP for the purpose of clarifying information contained in proposals in accordance with the provisions set forth in Section 63G-6a-707(5).

  (5) After each proposal has been independently evaluated by each member of the evaluation committee, each committee member independently shall assign a preliminary draft score for each proposal for each of the non-priced technical criteria listed in the RFP.

  (a) After completing the preliminary draft scoring of the non-priced technical criteria for each proposal, the evaluation committee shall enter into deliberations to:

  (i) review each evaluation committee member's preliminary draft scores;

  (ii) resolve any factual disagreements;

  (iii) modify their preliminary draft scores based on their updated understanding of the facts; and

  (iv) derive the committee's final recommended consensus score for the non-priced technical criteria of each proposal.

  (b) During the evaluation process, the evaluation committee may make a recommendation to the conducting procurement unit that:

  (i) a proposal be rejected for;

  (A) being non-responsive,

  (B) not meeting the mandatory minimum requirements, or

  (C) not meeting any applicable minimum score threshold, or

  (ii) an offeror be rejected for not being responsible.

  (c) If an evaluation committee member does not attend an evaluation committee meeting, the meeting may be canceled and rescheduled.

  (d) In order to score proposals fairly, an evaluation committee member must be present at all evaluation committee meetings and must review all proposals, including if applicable oral presentations. If an evaluation committee member fails to attend an evaluation committee meeting or leaves a meeting early or fails for any reason to fulfill the duties and obligations of a committee member, that committee member shall be removed from the committee. The remainder of the evaluation committee members may proceed with the evaluation, provided there are at least three evaluation committee members remaining.

  (i) Attendance or participation on an evaluation committee via electronic means such as a conference call, a webcam, an online business application, or other electronic means is permissible.

  (6)(a) The evaluation committee shall derive its final recommended consensus score for the non-priced technical criteria of each proposal using the following methods:

  (i) the total of each individual evaluation committee member's scores for each proposal shall be the consensus score for the evaluation committee; or

  (ii) an average of each individual evaluation committee member's scores for each proposal shall be the consensus score for the evaluation committee.

  (b) The evaluation committee shall submit its final score sheet, signed and dated by each committee member, to the issuing procurement unit for review.

  (7) The evaluation committee may not change its consensus final recommended scores of the non-priced technical criteria for each proposal after the scores have been submitted to the issuing procurement unit, unless the issuing procurement unit authorizes that a best and final offer process to be conducted under the provisions set forth in Section 63G-6a-707.5 and Section R33-7-601.

  (8) In accordance with Section 63G-6a-707, the issuing procurement unit shall:

  (a) review the evaluation committee's final recommended scores for each proposal's non-priced technical criteria and correct any errors, scoring inconsistencies, and reported noncompliance with this chapter or cancel the solicitation in accordance with Sections 63G-6a-106(4) or 63G-6a-303(3).

  (b) score the cost of each proposal based on the applicable scoring formula; and

  (c) calculate the total combined score for each proposal.

  (9) The evaluation committee may, with approval from the issuing procurement unit, request best and final offers from responsible offerors who have submitted responsive proposals that meet the minimum qualifications, evaluation criteria, or applicable score thresholds identified in the RFP, under the circumstances set forth in Section 63G-6a-707.5 and Section R33-7-601.

  (10) The evaluation committee and the conducting procurement unit shall prepare a justification statement and any applicable cost-benefit analysis in accordance with Section 63G-6a-708.

  (11) The issuing procurement unit's role as a non-scoring member of the evaluation committee will be to facilitate the evaluation process within the guidelines of the Utah Procurement Code and applicable Rules.

  (12)(a) The head of the issuing procurement unit may remove a member of an evaluation committee for:

  (i) having a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest with a person responding to a solicitation;

  (ii) having an unlawful bias or the appearance of unlawful bias for or against a person responding to a solicitation;

  (iii) having a pattern of arbitrary, capricious, or clearly erroneous scores that are unexplainable or unjustifiable;

  (iv) having inappropriate contact or communication with a person responding to a solicitation;

  (v) socializing inappropriately with a person responding to a solicitation;

  (vi) engaging in any other action or having any other association that causes the head of the issuing procurement unit to conclude that the individual cannot fairly evaluate a solicitation response; or

  (vii) any other violation of a law, rule, or policy.

  (b) The head of the issuing procurement unit may reconstitute an evaluation committee in any way deemed appropriate to correct an impropriety described in Subsection (12)(a). If an impropriety cannot be cured by replacing a member, the head of the issuing procurement unit may appoint a new evaluation committee, cancel the procurement or cancel and reissue the procurement.