Evaluation committee -- Evaluation of proposals

(1) A procurement unit shall appoint an evaluation committee of at least three members to evaluate proposals received in response to a request for proposals issued by the procurement unit. (2) The evaluation committee shall evaluate proposals in accordance with the process described in the request for proposals. (3) To determine which proposal provides the best value to the procurement unit, the evaluation committee shall evaluate each responsible offeror's responsive proposal that has not been disqualified from consideration under the provisions of this chapter, using the evaluation criteria described in the request for proposals. (4) Criteria not described in the request for proposals may not be used to evaluate a proposal. (5) A procurement unit shall: (a) appoint evaluation committee members who have at least a general familiarity with or basic understanding of: (i) the technical requirements relating to the type of procurement item that is the subject of the procurement; or (ii) the need that the procurement item is intended to address; and (b) ensure that the evaluation committee and each individual participating in the evaluation committee process: (i) does not have a conflict of interest with any of the offerors; (ii) can fairly evaluate each proposal; (iii) does not contact or communicate with an offeror concerning the procurement outside the official evaluation committee process; and (iv) conducts or participates in the evaluation in a manner that ensures a fair and competitive process and avoids the appearance of impropriety. (6) A procurement unit may authorize an evaluation committee to receive assistance from an expert or consultant to better understand a technical issue involved in the procurement. (7) (a) Except as provided in Subsection (7)(b), an evaluation committee member is prohibited from knowing or having access to information relating to the cost of a proposal until after the evaluation committee submits its recommendation to the procurement unit based on the scores of all criteria other than cost. (b) A procurement official may waive the prohibition of Subsection (7)(a) by signing a written statement indicating why waiving the prohibition is in the best interests of the procurement unit. (8) An evaluation committee may not change its final recommended scores after the evaluation committee has submitted those scores to the procurement unit. (9) (a) The deliberations and other proceedings of an evaluation committee may be held in private. (b) If the evaluation committee is a public body, as defined in Section 52-4-103, the evaluation committee shall comply with Section 52-4-205 in closing a meeting for its deliberations and other proceedings. (10) (a) At the conclusion of the evaluation process, an evaluation committee shall prepare and submit to the procurement unit a written statement that: (i) recommends a proposal for an award of a contract, if the evaluation committee decides to recommend a proposal; (ii) contains the score awarded to the recommended proposal based on the criteria stated in the request for proposals; and (iii) explains how the recommended proposal provides the best value to the procurement unit. (b) A procurement unit is not required to comply with Subsection (10)(a) for a contract with a construction manager/general contractor if the contract is awarded based solely on: (i) the qualifications of the construction manager/general contractor; and (ii) the management fee to be paid to the construction manager/general contractor.