Section 65IAC2-1-7. Request for proposals

   (a) The director may award a contract using the procedure in this section.

  (b) Proposals shall be solicited through a request for proposals, shall include the terms determined by the director to be in the best interests of the commission, and may include the following:

(1) A description of the fundamental qualities of the goods and services being sought.

(2) A statement concerning the criteria that will be used to determine the winning proposal and relative importance of price and the other evaluation factors.

(3) The date and time by which proposals are to be submitted to the commission for consideration.

  (c) Public notice shall be given in the manner required by section 12 of this rule.

  (d) If provided in the request for proposals or determined by the director to be desirable, discussions may be conducted with responsible offerors, who submit proposals determined to be reasonably susceptible of being selected for award, for the purpose of clarification to assure full understanding of, and responsiveness to, the solicitation requirements or correcting errors or omissions in the proposal.

  (e) Award shall be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal is determined in writing to be most advantageous to the commission, taking into consideration price and other evaluation factors set forth in the request for proposals.

  (f) Only proposals determined by the director to be reasonably susceptible of being selected for award need be given any opportunity for discussion or revision of proposals to the extent such opportunity was specified in the process pertaining to request for proposals.

  (g) The factors or criteria that may be used in the evaluation of proposals shall be determined by the director and be in the best interests of the commission, which shall include those specified in the request for proposals.

  (h) The director may use a multiple step bid process by requiring that bidders initially submit unpriced offers in response to an invitation to proposals. Submission of priced bids may then be restricted to only those bidders whose offer qualified under the criteria set forth in the original proposals. (State Lottery Commission; 65 IAC 2-1-7; emergency rule filed Jul 20, 1989, 4:10 p.m.: 12 IR 2294; emergency rule filed Dec 9, 1996, 4:00 p.m.: 20 IR 963; readopted filed Nov 30, 2001, 11:02 a.m.: 25 IR 1268; readopted filed Nov 14, 2007, 3:02 p.m.: 20071212-IR-065070656RFA; emergency rule filed Feb 11, 2011, 2:41 p.m.: 20110216-IR-065110082ERA; emergency rule filed Jun 28, 2013, 1:13 p.m.: 20130710-IR-065130297ERA)