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Oklahoma Administrative Code (Last Updated: March 11, 2021) |
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TITLE 260. Office of Management and Enterprise Services |
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Chapter 40. Employee Benefits Department |
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Subchapter 37. Competitive Bidding Criteria and Procedures for Contracts Awarded for Flexible Benefits Plans |
SECTION 260:40-37-8. Award of contract
Latest version.
- (a) Contracts for health plans provided by qualified Bidder(s) may be awarded based on best and final offer BFO through competitive negotiation. In the sole discretion of the EBD, a BFO process shall be conducted with qualified Bidders if it is considered by the EBD to be in the best interest of the State. In the event the EBD considers a BFO process to be in the best interest of the State, all qualified Bidders meeting the minimum requirements of the RFP shall be afforded an opportunity to negotiate a BFO with the EBD. The EBD shall issue a written request to all qualified Bidders for a BFO. Only qualified Bidders who satisfy the minimum bid requirements specified in the RFP shall be allowed to participate in any BFO negotiation process. The EBD retains the right to accept or reject qualified Bidder(s) BFO. The EBD shall retain as confidential information contained in the initial proposals submitted by qualified Bidder(s) as well as any subsequent bid offers made by qualified Bidder(s) prior to final contract award as part of the BFO negotiation process. The BFO negotiation process shall allow for modification and alteration of Bidder(s) proposal content and Bidder(s) proposal price after proposals are submitted and during the evaluation process. Upon request for a public bid opening, only the name(s) of the qualified Bidder(s) shall be revealed; neither price nor proposal content shall be revealed and made public until after the BFO process is complete and notice of intent to award is announced by the EBD. Only the final, agreed-upon price and final, agreed-upon proposal content shall be made public after the BFO process is complete and notice of intent to award is announced by the EBD. Information clearly designated in the RFP as proprietary shall be held confidential pursuant to the Employees Benefits Act, 74 Okl.St.Ann. § 1365 A.11. After an initial proposal is received and opened by the EBD following the bid closing date and time, the initial proposal offered by qualified Bidder(s) may be discussed for clarification and/or modification if the EBD deems it advantageous to do so. In this context, "discussion" shall mean clarification, modification, and negotiation, or any of these. Discussion(s) with a qualified Bidder(s) during negotiation and/or clarification shall be conducted individually and privately with qualified Bidder(s) and may be tape recorded by the EBD. The EBD shall hold all tape recordings, transcripts and notes of discussion(s) confidential. Changes shall not be allowed in qualified Bidder(s) proposal or price after BFOs are received, unless the EBD determines, in its sole discretion, that re-submission would be in the best interest of the State. The specific criteria of the BFO shall be specified in the RFP issued by the EBD.(b) All proposals shall be forwarded to the Contracts Administrator upon completion of the evaluation. The Contracts Administrator shall review the information to determine compliance with the RFP requirements and compliance with all EBD rules, policies and procedures. The EBD shall be the sole judge in reviewing proposals and awarding contracts.(c) The EBD shall identify and apply criteria within the RFP and the proposals for final selection and award of contracts. The evaluation process may allow for the selection of less than all of the responsive or qualifying proposals, as allowed by law and as determined to be in the best interest of the State.(d) The Contracts Administrator has the right to waive minor deficiencies or informalities in a proposal provided that the best interest of the State would be served without prejudice to the rights of the other Bidders.(e) The EBD reserves the right to bid and award contracts on an all or none basis, by item or groups of items, whichever is in the best interest of the State.(f) All awards shall be made under the terms and conditions as outlined in OAC 260:40-37-9 and any additional terms and conditions as described in the RFP.(g) All ethics rules and laws related to conflicts of interest and doing business with public officials apply to any contract with the EBD.