63G-6a-707. Evaluation committee — Evaluation of proposals.
(1)
A procurement unit shall appoint an evaluation committee of at least three members to evaluate proposals received in response to a request for proposals issued by the procurement unit.
Terms Used In Utah Code 63G-6a-707
Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
Contractor: means a person who is awarded a contract with a procurement unit. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Offeror: means a person who submits a proposal in response to a request for proposals. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of a judicial proceeding. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
Procurement: means the acquisition of a procurement item through an expenditure of public funds, or an agreement to expend public funds, including an acquisition through a public-private partnership. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Procurement item: means an item of personal property, a technology, a service, or a construction project. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Procurement official: means :
(a)
for a procurement unit other than an independent procurement unit, the chief procurement officer;
(b)
for a legislative procurement unit, the individual, individuals, or body designated in a policy adopted by the Legislative Management Committee;
(c)
for a judicial procurement unit, the Judicial Council or an individual or body designated by the Judicial Council by rule;
(d)
for a local government procurement unit:
(i)
the legislative body of the local government procurement unit; or
(ii)
an individual or body designated by the local government procurement unit;
(e)
for a special district, the board of trustees of the special district or the board of trustees' designee;
(f)
for a special service district, the governing body of the special service district or the governing body's designee;
(g)
for a local building authority, the board of directors of the local building authority or the board of directors' designee;
(h)
for a conservation district, the board of supervisors of the conservation district or the board of supervisors' designee;
(i)
for a public corporation, the board of directors of the public corporation or the board of directors' designee;
(j)
for a school district or any school or entity within a school district, the board of the school district or the board's designee;
(k)
for a charter school, the individual or body with executive authority over the charter school or the designee of the individual or body;
(l)
for an institution of higher education described in Section 53B-2-101, the president of the institution of higher education or the president's designee;
(m)
for the State Board of Education, the State Board of Education or the State Board of Education's designee;
(n)
for the Utah Board of Higher Education, the Commissioner of Higher Education or the designee of the Commissioner of Higher Education;
(o)
for the Utah Communications Authority, established in Section 63H-7a-201, the executive director of the Utah Communications Authority or the executive director's designee; or
(p)
(i)
for the facilities division, and only to the extent of procurement activities of the facilities division as an independent procurement unit under the procurement authority provided under Title 63A, Chapter 5b, Administration of State Facilities, the director of the facilities division or the director's designee;
(ii)
for the attorney general, and only to the extent of procurement activities of the attorney general as an independent procurement unit under the procurement authority provided under Title 67, Chapter 5, Attorney General, the attorney general or the attorney general's designee;
(iii)
for the Department of Transportation created in Section 72-1-201, and only to the extent of procurement activities of the Department of Transportation as an independent procurement unit under the procurement authority provided under Title 72, Transportation Code, the executive director of the Department of Transportation or the executive director's designee; or
(iv)
for any other executive branch department, division, office, or entity that has statutory procurement authority outside this chapter, and only to the extent of the procurement activities of the department, division, office, or entity as an independent procurement unit under the procurement authority provided outside this chapter for the department, division, office, or entity, the chief executive officer of the department, division, office, or entity or the chief executive officer's designee. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Request for proposals: means a document used to solicit proposals to provide a procurement item to a procurement unit, including all other documents that are attached to that document or incorporated in that document by reference. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Responsible: means being capable, in all respects, of:
(a)
meeting all the requirements of a solicitation; and
(b)
fully performing all the requirements of the contract resulting from the solicitation, including being financially solvent with sufficient financial resources to perform the contract. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
Responsive: means conforming in all material respects to the requirements of a solicitation. See Utah Code 63G-6a-103
(2)
The evaluation committee shall evaluate proposals in accordance with the process described in the request for proposals.
(3)
To determine which proposal provides the best value to the procurement unit, the evaluation committee shall evaluate each responsibleofferor‘s responsive proposal that has not been disqualified from consideration under the provisions of this chapter, using the evaluation criteria described in the request for proposals.
(4)
Criteria not described in the request for proposals may not be used to evaluate a proposal.
(5)
A procurement unit shall:
(a)
appoint evaluation committee members who have at least a general familiarity with or basic understanding of:
(i)
the technical requirements relating to the type of procurement item that is the subject of the procurement; or
(ii)
the need that the procurement item is intended to address; and
(b)
ensure that the evaluation committee and each individual participating in the evaluation committee process:
(i)
does not have a conflict of interest with any of the offerors;
(ii)
can fairly evaluate each proposal;
(iii)
does not contact or communicate with an offeror concerning the procurement outside the official evaluation committee process; and
(iv)
conducts or participates in the evaluation in a manner that ensures a fair and competitive process and avoids the appearance of impropriety.
(6)
A procurement unit may authorize an evaluation committee to receive assistance from an expert or consultant to better understand a technical issue involved in the procurement.
(7)
(a)
Except as provided in Subsection (7)(b), an evaluation committee member is prohibited from knowing or having access to information relating to the cost of a proposal until after the evaluation committee submits its recommendation to the procurement unit based on the scores of all criteria other than cost.
(b)
A procurement official may waive the prohibition of Subsection (7)(a) by signing a written statement indicating why waiving the prohibition is in the best interests of the procurement unit.
(8)
An evaluation committee may not change its final recommended scores after the evaluation committee has submitted those scores to the procurement unit.
(9)
(a)
The deliberations and other proceedings of an evaluation committee may be held in private.
(b)
If the evaluation committee is a public body, as defined in Section 52-4-103, the evaluation committee shall comply with Section 52-4-205 in closing a meeting for its deliberations and other proceedings.
(10)
(a)
At the conclusion of the evaluation process, an evaluation committee shall prepare and submit to the procurement unit a written statement that:
(i)
recommends a proposal for an award of a contract, if the evaluation committee decides to recommend a proposal;
(ii)
contains the score awarded to the recommended proposal based on the criteria stated in the request for proposals; and
(iii)
explains how the recommended proposal provides the best value to the procurement unit.
(b)
A procurement unit is not required to comply with Subsection (10)(a) for a contract with a construction manager/general contractor if the contract is awarded based solely on:
(i)
the qualifications of the construction manager/general contractor; and
(ii)
the management fee to be paid to the construction manager/general contractor.
