Mississippi Administrative Code › Title 36 - Technology › Part 2 - Information Systems Services › Chapter 12 - Information for Vendors › Rule 36-2-12-212.4 - 021-040 Post-Procurement Reviews

Current through June 25, 2024
1. Post-Procurement
				Reviews-General
A Post-Procurement Review is a business meeting conducted by
				  ITS at a vendor's request after an Award of Contract for a Request for Proposal
				  (RFP) or Letter of Configuration (LOC). Post-Procurement Reviews are attended
				  by the ITS staff members responsible for the given procurement, ITS management
				  staff responsible for the procurement process, members of the vendor's staff
				  involved in the proposal process, and, optionally, staff members from the
				  customer agency on whose behalf ITS conducted the procurement. A
				  Post-Procurement Review is a non-confrontational business meeting in which
				  parties exchange information on the procurement process, the results, and any
				  concerns. No vendor preparation is necessary, other than general familiarity
				  with the procurement process that was followed and the contents of that
				  vendor's proposal.
A Post-Procurement Review is available to any vendor who
				  responded to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Letter of Configuration (LOC),
				  regardless of whether they were awarded the resulting contract. Vendors are
				  encouraged to request Post-Procurement Reviews to both receive information on
				  the scoring of their proposals and to provide ITS with feedback on the
				  procurement process. ITS actively solicits feedback from the vendor regarding
				  any wording in procurement documents or any procurement procedures that were
				  unclear, difficult to follow, or unduly complicated the procurement process.
				  ITS uses this information as input to improve the procurement process. The
				  purpose of the Post-Procurement Review is to strengthen the business
				  relationships and communications between proposing vendors and the State, to
				  provide ITS with information to facilitate improvements to the procurement
				  process, and to provide vendors with specific information that allows them to
				  have insight into the procurement and proposal evaluation process and to
				  compete most effectively. The Post-Procurement Review should also provide a
				  vendor the information needed to determine whether that vendor is aggrieved
				  relative to the specific procurement. For a Post-Procurement Review conducted
				  after the protest period for a given procurement has passed, the full objective
				  of all discussion and information exchange is to assist all parties in
				  identifying ways to improve the procurement products and processes and to help
				  the State increase competition.
Post-Procurement Reviews should be requested in a timely
				  manner, typically no later than five working days after the Award of Contract
				  (for Post-Procurement Reviews related to Protests see section below,
				  Post-Procurement Review ? As Condition Precedent for Protests). Requests for a
				  Post-Procurement Review should be made to the ITS staff member who was the
				  contact for the procurement process or to the Director of the Division of
				  Information Systems Services (ISS). Requests must be made in writing.
				  Post-Procurement Reviews can be conducted at the ITS administrative office,
				  3771 Eastwood Drive, Jackson, Mississippi 39211, or can be conducted via
				  telephone conference call, at the vendor's option. Post-Procurement Reviews
				  normally last between thirty minutes and an hour.
Any information in a proposal that was deemed pertinent to
				  the defined evaluation criteria may be summarized for the proposal scoring and
				  included in the project file and/or in a written ITS Board write-up to document
				  the evaluation results. This summary-level information includes (a) total
				  points awarded to each vendor's proposal in each major scoring category (e.g.
				  technical merit, company resources, value-add, references, cost); (b) the total
				  lifecycle cost computed from each vendor's cost proposal; and (c) the overall
				  ranking of all proposals. This information is part of the public record and may
				  be reproduced or distributed by ITS without prior notification to proposing
				  vendors. The summary-level cost and scoring information described above is
				  provided at the time of the meeting to vendors requesting a Post-Procurement
				  Review for a given procurement.
ITS requests that vendors understand and conform to the
				  following guidelines for Post-Procurement Reviews:
A. ITS will provide detailed information on
				the evaluation and scoring of the proposal submitted by the participant
				requesting the review and summary-level evaluation, scoring, and cost
				information on all other proposals. Note that, while scores for other proposals
				are public record, the details of any other proposal cannot be revealed without
				third-party notification; therefore, any specific discussion of scoring or
				proposal content will be confined to the requesting vendor's proposal. To
				ensure consistency and to enable the state to maintain a record of the
				information we provide under public records, ITS follows a published public
				records policy for the release of all information other than what can be
				disclosed in a Post-Procurement Review. A Post-Procurement Review can be
				conducted prior to or in parallel with fulfillment of public records requests.
				See Section 019-010 ITS Public Records Procedures for additional information.
B. As Post-Procurement Reviews are
				business meetings, ITS will not have legal staff present. Should a vendor
				choose to have an attorney present, the vendor must immediately identify that
				individual as an attorney, whether the attorney is participating via telephone
				or is present at an in-house meeting. ITS will stop the meeting until a
				representative of the Mississippi Attorney General's Office can be in
				attendance.
ITS strongly encourages vendors to schedule Post-Procurement
				  Reviews when they have any questions following contract award. As described
				  above, the meetings can be conducted face-to-face in the ITS offices or via
				  conference call, according to the vendor's preference. ITS believes these
				  meetings are extremely valuable opportunities for the vendor and the State to
				  exchange information. Among other benefits to vendors, the Post-Procurement
				  Review provides the only mechanism outside the Public Records Procedure for
				  receiving information on the specifics of the evaluation process, including a
				  complimentary copy of the ITS Board written recommendation or similar written
				  information for projects that were not presented to the ITS Board.
ITS has found that these meetings usually clear up any
				  concerns regarding the process and evaluation. If the vendor is not satisfied
				  on these matters during the Review, the vendor then has adequate information to
				  determine if a protest is warranted. Note that the ITS Protest Procedure and
				  Policy requires that a vendor may not file a protest of an Award of Contract
				  without first participating in a Post-Procurement Review with ITS staff.