Department of Justice
(C) All bids will be publicly opened at
the time and place prescribed in the in-
vitation for bids;
(D) A firm fixed-price contract award
will be made in writing to the lowest
responsive and responsible bidder.
Where specified in bidding documents,
factors such as discounts, transpor-
tation cost, and life cycle costs shall be
considered in determining which bid is
lowest. Payment discounts will only be
used to determine the low bid when
prior experience indicates that such
discounts are usually taken advantage
of; and
(E) Any or all bids may be rejected if
there is a sound documented reason.
(3) Procurement by competitive pro-
posals. The technique of competitive
proposals is normally conducted with
more than one source submitting an
offer, and either a fixed-price or cost-
reimbursement type contract is award-
ed. It is generally used when conditions
are not appropriate for the use of
sealed bids. If this method is used, the
following requirements apply:
(i) Requests for proposals will be pub-
licized and identify all evaluation fac-
tors and their relative importance. Any
response to publicized requests for pro-
posals shall be honored to the max-
imum extent practical;
(ii) Proposals will be solicited from
an adequate number of qualified
sources;
(iii) Grantees and subgrantees will
have a method for conducting tech-
nical evaluations of the proposals re-
ceived and for selecting awardees;
(iv) Awards will be made to the re-
sponsible firm whose proposal is most
advantageous to the program, with
price and other factors considered; and
(v) Grantees and subgrantees may
use competitive proposal procedures
for qualifications-based procurement of
architectural/engineering (A/E) profes-
sional services whereby competitors’
qualifications are evaluated and the
most qualified competitor is selected,
subject to negotiation of fair and rea-
sonable compensation. The method,
where price is not used as a selection
factor, can only be used in procure-
ment of A/E professional services. It
cannot be used to purchase other types
of services though A/E firms are a po-
§ 66.36
tential source to perform the proposed
effort.
(4) Procurement by noncompetitive
proposals is procurement through solic-
itation of a proposal from only one
source, or after solicitation of a num-
ber of sources, competition is deter-
mined inadequate.
(i) Procurement by noncompetitive
proposals may be used only when the
award of a contract is infeasible under
small purchase procedures, sealed bids
or competitive proposals and one of the
following circumstances applies:
(A) The item is available only from a
single source;
(B) The public exigency or emergency
for the requirement wil] not permit a
delay resulting from competitive solic-
itation;
(C) The awarding agency authorizes
noncompetitive proposals; or
(D) After solicitation of a number of
sources, competition is determined in-
adequate.
(ii) Cost analysis, i.e., verifying the
proposed cost data, the projections of
the data, and the evaluation of the spe-
cific elements of costs and profits, is
required.
(iii) Grantees and subgrantees may
be required to submit the proposed pro-
curement to the awarding agency for
pre-award review in accordance with
paragraph (g) of this section.
(e) Contracting with small and minority
firms, women’s business enterprise and
labor surplus area firms. (1) The grantee
and subgrantee will take all necessary
affirmative steps to assure that minor-
ity firms, women’s business enter-
prises, and labor surplus area firms are
used when possible.
(2) Affirmative steps shall include:
(i) Placing qualified small and minor-
ity businesses and women's business
enterprises on solicitation lists;
(ii) Assuring that small and minority
businesses, and women’s business en-
terprises are solicited whenever they
are potential sources;
Gii) Dividing total requirements,
when economically feasible, into small-
er tasks or quantities to permit max-
imum participation by small and mi-
nority business, and women’s business
enterprises;
(iv) Establishing delivery schedules,
where the requirement permits, which
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