1. RFP Evaluator’s Guide

2. INTRODUCTION You have been selected to participate in the evaluation of Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP process measures economy and quality when purchasing goods and services, and it ensures fair treatment of vendors desiring to do business with the State. The committee and its functions are an essential part of that process.

3. INTRODUCTION CONTINUED It’s important for you as an evaluator to know what will be expected of you before committing to this duty. Being on an evaluation committee will require long hours of concentrated effort. Please carefully consider the content of this guide and let the procurement officer know if you have any questions or reservations.

4. THE EVALUATION COMMITTEE  The role of the committee is to award points to the proposals so that they may be ranked.  Evaluation committees are generally comprised of three to five members, but they can be any size the procurement officer deems necessary. The majority of members are typically public officials from various departments with diverse backgrounds.  Evaluation of complex offers may be intense, time-consuming, difficult work, which must be accomplished on a limited schedule.  You will be limited to considering only the evaluation criteria published in the RFP.

5. INDEPENDENT JUDGMENT  In evaluating proposals, you must exercise “independent judgment.” You have been entrusted with an essential part of an important public decision.  Exercise your judgment in a manner that is not dependent on anyone else’s opinions or wishes.  You can seek to increase your knowledge before you award points by asking questions and seeking appropriate information. Any attempts, made by anyone, to influence your judgment of a particular proposal must be reported to the Purchasing Officer immediately.

6. Ensure, however, that you do not allow your actions to be influenced by another person’s wishes.  The exercise of independent judgment applies not only to possible influences from outside the committee but also to influences from within the committee. It’s normal and acceptable for there to be debate, even passionate debate, within the committee about how well a proposal meets the evaluation criteria. As an independent evaluator, you may be swayed by debate in making your judgment about many points you wish to award; that is perfectly okay. However, evaluators may not act in a concerted manner to either favor or disfavor a particular proposal or group of proposals.

7. CONFLICT OF INTEREST It is important to avoid even the appearance of impropriety in the evaluation process. Once the proposals have been received and it is clear which individuals and/or companies have responded to the RFP, each member of the committee will be provided with a Declaration Form by the committee chairperson or the procurement officer. This form contains information explaining what would constitute a potential conflict of interest.  Disclose potential problems accordingly. The procurement officer will collect the signed Declaration Forms for inclusion in the official procurement file.  Your awareness of a potential conflict may not arise until you are well into the evaluation process. If you are ever in doubt about your ability to act ethically on this RFP because of a conflict of interest, please notify the procurement officer immediately.

8. CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION Certain documents received as part of an RFP may be protected from public view under the provisions of 18-4-304, MCA. The procurement officer will inform committee members if any documents received are protected from public view under the statute. If such documents are present, the Declaration Form will explain the responsibility of the committee members to maintain the confidentiality of these documents during and after the RFP evaluation process.

9. REFERENCE CHECK QUESTIONS The committee has the option to check offeror references. This form provides some basic questions that may be asked of an offeror’s references. The State Procurement Bureau (SPB) does not recommend assigning points to references. However, language in the RFP template provides that negative references may be grounds for proposal disqualification.

10. INDIVIDUAL SCORING Guidelines Committee members are provided with copies of each RFP to begin their individual review of the proposals. Please adhere to the guidelines below while evaluating.  Prior documented experience and past performance history with the product and/or offeror may be considered as part of the reference checking process if it is available to the entire committee.  Include a written justification for each scoring category. An approved scoring sheet/evaluation matrix will be provided to assist you in the process of awarding and totaling points.  Committee members MAY NOT meet privately to discuss their scores, as a meeting of the committee or its members must be publicly noticed.

11. INDIVIDUAL SCORING Guidelines  If the committee wishes to meet to discuss the responses, and/or to arrive at a final score, the meeting must be adequately noticed pursuant to the paragraph below.  Advice may be sought from experts in the field; however, each committee member must take responsibility for his/her own score. Step One:  Review all proposals.  Take notes, make comments or prepare questions for discussion. Do not score at this point.

12. INDIVIDUAL SCORING Guidelines Step Two: Determine status. Make an initial determination as to whether each proposal is “responsive” or “non-responsive.” A “responsive” proposal conforms in all material respects to the RFP.  A proposal may be deemed “non-responsive” if any of the required information is not provided, the submitted price is found to be excessive or inadequate as measured by criteria stated in the RFP, or the proposal is clearly not within the scope of the project described and required in the RFP. Extreme care should be used when making this decision because of the time and cost that an offeror has put into submitting a proposal. If a proposal is determined to be “non-responsive,” it will not be considered further. The procurement officer will make the final determination of responsiveness. If a determination of non-responsiveness is made, written justification must be provided for this conclusion.

13. INDIVIDUAL SCORING Guidelines Step Three: Score proposals. Committee members should INDIVIDUALLY score the proposals based on the criteria established in the RFP.  Proposals must be evaluated solely on the stated criteria listed in the RFP.  Only material presented in the written proposals and vendor demonstrations can be considered in the evaluation. Prior documented experience and past performance history with the product and/or offeror may be considered as part of the reference checking process if it is available to the entire committee.

14. INDIVIDUAL SCORING Guidelines Include a written justification for each scoring category. An approved scoring sheet/evaluation matrix will be provided to assist you in the process of awarding and totaling points. Advice may be sought from experts in the field; however, each committee member must take responsibility for his/her own score. If the committee wishes to meet to discuss the responses, and/or to arrive at a final score, the meeting must be adequately noticed pursuant to the Comparing Offers guidelines (next slide).

15. COMPARING OFFERS At first glance, it may seem obvious that proposals should be compared to one another in order to select the best one. While it’s true that a certain amount of comparison naturally occurs during the evaluation process, proposals must be evaluated or scored using the criteria set out in the RFP. In addition, committee members should record brief comments that lend insight into why they awarded points or failed to award points based on the RFP evaluation criteria for any particular item.

16. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS  Once the proposals have been evaluated and scored by individual committee members, the entire committee may meet to discuss the proposals and arrive at the final scoring. All meetings involving the evaluation of RFPs are open to the public and subject to the open meeting laws.  These meetings must be posted electronically on the State Financial Services Division website, http://vendorresources.mt.gov/meetings, 72 hours in advance.  The meetings must take place in an ADA accessible location and members of the public are welcome to attend.  When sections of the proposals involving trade secrets or statutorily protected confidential materials are discussed, the meeting must be temporarily closed to the public.

17. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS Pursuant to 2-3-212, MCA, the committee chairperson, or an assigned designee, must take minutes of each meeting. These minutes must include the date, time, the place of meeting, a list of the committee members in attendance, as well as the substance of all matters discussed or decided and, at the request of any committee member, a record by individual members of any votes taken. These minutes will become part of the permanent procurement file. In addition, a quorum of the committee must be present to take any official action.

18. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS The following is a five-step process that commonly occurs throughout the course of the committee meeting.  Step One: Discuss proposals  Step Two: Interview  Step Three: Discussion/Negotiation  Step Four: Recommendation  Step Five: Procurement Officer Review

19. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS  Step One: Discuss proposals. The full committee should discuss all aspects of the proposals so that there is a “unified understanding” of the criteria and corresponding responses. Individual scores may be adjusted at this point based upon discussion. The committee may tally the final point assignments by the following methods:  consensus score  a total of all of the points given by individual committee members  an average of the individual scores. Any method or combination thereof is acceptable.

20. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS  Step Two: Interview. This step is optional. If interviews are deemed necessary, the procurement officer will issue a letter asking the offeror to attend the interview or give a presentation. This is an opportunity for both sides to explain their viewpoints. If an oral interview is pursued as an option, it must be so stated in the RFP and scored according to stated criteria.

21. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS  Step Three: Discussion/Negotiation. This step is also optional. If the committee is unsure of certain items or issues included in an RFP response, it may request further clarification from the offeror. The procurement officer will distribute clarification questions. Responses will be returned to the procurement officer and submitted to the committee.

22. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS  Step Four: Recommendation. The full committee makes a written recommendation as to whom the contract should be awarded. This written recommendation should contain scores, justification and rationale for the decision, along with any other variables that may have been considered. If scoring methods (2) or (3) are used, as noted in above in Step 1, individual scoring sheets must be provided to the procurement officer at the end of the evaluation process. If consensus scoring is used, the consensus score sheets and any other material relating to the evaluation process must be turned in to the procurement officer.

23. EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS  Step Five: Procurement Officer Review. The procurement officer will review the committee scoring and justification. If the procurement officer agrees with the committee decision, he or she will:  issue a Request for Documents Notice to the highest scoring offeror and notify other offerors of the tentative contract award  obtain the required insurance documents and contract security  issue a purchase order or contract, as appropriate. If a formal contract is required by the agency, a signed copy must be forwarded to the procurement officer for final review and signature. A copy of the fully executed contract will be returned to the agency and one copy will be retained for the procurement officer’s RFP file.

24. This completes the RFP process