1. When the commissioner of administration determines that the use of competitive bidding is either not practicable or not advantageous to the state, supplies may be procured by competitive proposals. The commissioner shall state the reasons for such determination, and a report containing those reasons shall be maintained with the vouchers or files pertaining to such purchases. All purchases in excess of ten thousand dollars to be made under this section shall be based on competitive proposals.

2. On any purchase where the estimated expenditure shall be one hundred thousand dollars or over, the commissioner of administration shall:

(1) Advertise for proposals in at least two daily newspapers of general circulation in such places as are most likely to reach prospective offerors and may advertise in at least two weekly minority newspapers and may provide such information through an electronic medium available to the general public at least five days before proposals for such purchases are to be opened. Other methods of advertisement, however, may be adopted by the commissioner of administration when such other methods are deemed more advantageous for the supplies to be purchased;

(2) Post notice of the proposed purchase; and

(3) Solicit proposals by mail or other reasonable method generally available to the public from prospective offerors.

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All proposals for such supplies shall be mailed or delivered to the office of the commissioner of administration so as to reach such office before the time set for opening proposals. Proposals shall be opened in a manner to avoid disclosure of contents to competing offerors during the process of negotiation.

3. The contract shall be let to the lowest and best offeror as determined by the evaluation criteria established in the request for proposal and any subsequent negotiations conducted pursuant to this subsection. In determining the lowest and best offeror, as provided in the request for proposals and under rules promulgated by the commissioner of administration, negotiations may be conducted with responsible offerors who submit proposals selected by the commissioner of administration on the basis of reasonable criteria for the purpose of clarifying and assuring full understanding of and responsiveness to the solicitation requirements. Those offerors shall be accorded fair and equal treatment with respect to any opportunity for negotiation and subsequent revision of proposals; however, a request for proposal may set forth the manner for determining which offerors are eligible for negotiation, including, but not limited to, the use of shortlisting. Revisions may be permitted after submission and before award for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers. In conducting negotiations there shall be no disclosure of any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors. The commissioner of administration shall have the right to reject any or all proposals and advertise for new proposals or purchase the required supplies on the open market if they can be so purchased at a better price.

4. The commissioner shall make available, upon request, to any members of the general assembly, information pertaining to competitive proposals, including the names of bidders and the amount of each bidder’s offering for each contract.