- (a) When it is determined to be in the best interests of the state, the department may elect to include discussions for responsive offerors' best and final offer prior to selection. Discussions for best and final offer will occur following completion of the steps in §§9.82-9.85 of this subchapter, relating to contracts for scientific services.
- (b) If the department elects to conduct discussions as provided in subsection (a) of this section, each responsive offeror shall be given an equal opportunity to discuss and revise his or her proposal. The department will not disclose any information derived from proposals submitted by competing offerors during these discussions. Discussions will include identification of any portion of the responsive proposal not meeting minimum qualifications or meeting only minimum qualifications in order to assess an offeror's ability to meet the RFP requirements, and an opportunity for the offeror to demonstrate an understanding of the project and remedy the proposal's deficiencies. Discussions may include reasonableness of fee.
- (c) After completing discussions with offerors, the department will send written notification to each offeror to submit a best and final offer. The proposals will be reevaluated using the criteria in §9.85(a) of this title (relating to Evaluation). The evaluation shall be made in writing and shall include the individual proposal evaluation matrix as specified in §9.85(c) of this title.
Source Note:The provisions of this §9.86 adopted to be effective March 21, 1999, 24 TexReg 1829.