Section 3-143-205 - Evaluation of proposals and notice of award(a) After the submittal deadline, all proposals, modifications, and withdrawals shall be examined by the purchasing agency in accordance with this section.(b) Evaluators. The procurement officer, or an evaluation committee of designated reviewers selected by the head of the purchasing agency or procurement officer shall review and evaluate proposals. A copy of the document identifying any review committee members and any subsequent changes thereto shall be placed in the procurement file. (1) When an evaluation committee is utilized, the head of the purchasing agency or procurement officer shall select for each request for proposals, a minimum of two employees from a state agency or agencies with sufficient education and training to evaluate the proposals received in response to the request for proposals.(2) Non-state employees may serve as advisors to purchasing agencies in the evaluation of proposals but shall not represent or act on behalf of a purchasing agency in any selection or award. A non-state employee shall not be permitted to serve as an advisor if such service would pose an actual or potential conflict of interest.(c) Preparation of evaluators. If the purchasing agency deems it necessary or advisable, the evaluators may meet with other state agency personnel in advance of the formal evaluation process in order to discuss a request for proposals, the evaluation process, the evaluation criteria and their relative priorities, or other issues relevant to the evaluation or the request for proposals.(d) Procedure for evaluation. The evaluation of proposals shall be based solely upon the evaluation criteria and their relative priorities as established in the request for proposals. A written evaluation shall be made for each proposal based on either written comments or a numerical rating system. Numerical evaluations shall include a written explanation of scores given in accordance with criteria stated in the request for proposals. The written evaluations for all proposals received shall be made a part of the procurement file and made available for public inspection after award and execution of the contract, or contracts in the case of a multiple award.(e) If applicable, during the evaluation process, discussions with applicants shall be in accordance with section 3-143-403. (d) If applicable, the purchasing agency shall request applicants to submit final revised proposals in accordance with section 3-143-607.(e) Ranking of proposals. After all of the proposals have been evaluated, the proposals shall be ranked from most advantageous to least advantageous, based on the evaluations each proposal received.(f) Forbidden criteria for evaluation. Evaluations shall not be based on race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, physical or mental disability, political affiliation of the applicant, or any other criterion prohibited by law, unless such criterion is permitted by law.(g) Notice of award. After evaluation completion, a notice of award shall be sent in accordance with section 3-143-303 to each responsive and responsible applicant.[Eff 6/19/99; am and comp JAN 23 2006] (Auth: HRS § 103F-106) (Imp: HRS § 103F-402)