Section 118-3-03 - POLICIESA. The Office will inform prospective bidders by placing a legal advertisement for three consecutive days in the State paper (The Kennebec Journal, Augusta) and also will place the notice once in the weekend edition of the major daily newspapers published throughout the State, including the Maine Sunday Telegram, the Lewiston Sun-Journal Sunday, the Bangor Daily News, and the Central Maine Morning Sentinel.B. The request for proposal shall contain at a minimum a clear description of the required proposal content, evaluation criteria, relative scoring weights to be applied, proposal due date, and contact person.C. The Office may conduct bidders conferences but is not required to -do so.D. All proposals will be logged in upon receipt and will be stamped with the date and time of receipt.E. The proposal selection criteria shall be determined by agency personnel consistent with the requirements of performance-based contracting ( 5 MRSA §20005-A) and on the basis of reasonable standards of quality and effectiveness including, but not limited to: (1) completeness, (2) service descriptions,(3) cost factors, (4) staff pertinent to service delivery, (5) experience of the applicant,(6) responses to conditional requirements, (7) analysis of consumer impact as required by 5 MRSA §20005, and(8) expected results relevant to performance targets.F. Proposals shall be reviewed and rated by agency personnel or by a review team selected by agency personnel in a timely fashion following the deadline for proposal submission. If a review team consists of other than only agency personnel, the Office may select the member(s) from any of the following categories: (1) Person(s) who have substantial experience with or represent a program that provides the same or similar services;(2) Person(s) who have been consumer's of substance abuse treatment, intervention, or prevention services, having used one or more program(s);(3) Person(s) who are active members of the Substance Abuse Services Commission (or its successor);(4) Person(s) who are active or recent members of a task force, study group, or other advisory body having a substantial interest in and experience in the field of substance abuse and a familiarity with system structure and function; and Any person(s) chosen from the above categories shall not be affiliated with any program which has submitted a proposal to be reviewed in response to the subject Request(s) for Proposals issued by the Office.
G. The Office may reject substantially incomplete proposals. If incomplete proposals are accepted for further review, the Office will contact the applicant and specify the information needed. The Office will not request and will not accept additional information which results in a significant change in proposed services, customers targeted, or costs. Applicants must provide the information requested by the Office within specified time limits.H. Proposals which are not responsive to conditions of the RFP shall not be considered.I. Proposals received after announced deadlines shall not be considered.J. In all cases, OSA reserves the right to refuse any and all proposals.K. The award of grants and contracts will be made on the basis of the highest cumulative ratings received for pre-established evaluation criteria specified in the RFP. Ratings may be adjusted based on one or more value added factors, as specified in the RFP. Award selection is subject to the approval of the Director of the Office of Substance Abuse. The Office will notify all applicants of their selection or non-selection by certified mail.L. An aggrieved person may request a stay of contract award and/or request a hearing of an appeal on a contract award decision, within time limits defined in rules adopted by the Bureau of General Services, Title 5, Chapter 155-IA, subject to Title 5, Chapter 156. Requests for stay of contract and for hearing of an appeal must be written and addressed to the Director, Bureau of General Services, and must be in compliance with Chapter 120, Rules of Appeal of Contract and Grant Award, issued by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Bureau of General Services.M. The Office shall have the right to waive the above policy when the health and/or safety of clients is at risk.14-118 C.M.R. ch. 3, § 03