36 Miss. Code. R. 2-12-212.4
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:
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.
36 Miss. Code. R. 2-12-212.4