1621 CONDUCT OF DISCUSSIONS WITH OFFERORS

1621.1 The contracting officer shall ensure that, if discussions are held with any offeror within the competitive range, discussions are held with all offerors in the competitive range.

1621.2 During discussion with offerors, the contracting officer shall do the following:

(a) Control all discussions;

(b) Advise the offeror of deficiencies in its proposal so that the offeror is given an opportunity to satisfy the District's requirements;

(c) Attempt to resolve any uncertainties concerning the technical proposal and other terms and conditions of the proposal;

(d) Resolve any suspected mistakes by calling them to the offeror's attention as specifically as possible without disclosing information concerning other offerors' proposals or the evaluation process; and

(e) Provide the offeror a reasonable opportunity to submit any cost or price, technical, or other revisions to its proposal that may result from the discussions.

1621.3 The contracting officer shall not assist an offeror to bring its proposal up to the level of other proposals through successive rounds of discussion, such as pointing out weaknesses resulting from the offeror's lack of diligence, competence, or inventiveness in preparing the proposal.

1621.4 The contracting officer shall not disclose technical information pertaining to a proposal that results in improvement of a competing proposal.

1621.5 The contracting officer shall not indicate to an offeror a cost or price it must meet to obtain further consideration, advise an offeror of its standing relative to another offeror, or otherwise furnish information about any other offeror's prices.

SOURCE: Final Rulemaking published at 35 DCR 1459 (February 26, 1988).