N.J. Admin. Code § 17:12-2.6

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 11, June 3, 2024

Section 17:12-2.6 - Receipt and public availability of proposals

(a) Proposals must be received before the publicly announced deadline at the place designated for proposal submission. All other proposals shall be rejected. The Director may, in the event of inclement weather or other condition affecting or likely to affect bidders' timely delivery of proposals, postpone the deadline to the next operable business day. If timely delivery of a physical or electronic proposal is not possible due to a documentable cause of delay on the date of proposal opening and that is beyond the control of said vendor, said vendor can request, prior to the set deadline, that the Director postpone the deadline. If the Director determines that a postponement is in the State's best interest, the Director shall designate a revised same-day deadline. In either of these circumstances, the Director shall post notice of the postponement of the deadline for proposal submission on the Division's website. All previously received proposals will remain sealed until the revised proposal opening time.

(b) Promptly after the deadline for submission of proposals, the opening and reading of proposals shall be conducted.

(c) If a proposal timely received by the Division was not opened because it was misplaced by the Division or due to any other inadvertence by the Division, the Director shall set a date, time, and place for the opening of that proposal and notify and invite all participating bidders to attend.

(d) If there is no public representation at a proposal opening event, the Division may opt to forgo the reading of proposals.

(e) For RFPs having a negotiation component, only the names and addresses of the bidders will be publicly announced at the proposal opening.

(f) After the notice of intent to award has been issued, files relating to the procurement and, if applicable, documentation relating to any negotiations, shall not be considered public documents according to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1et seq., and will only be made available to the non-winning bidders and to any taxpayer considering filing a protest of the notice of intent to award upon request. All files relating to the procurement made available pursuant to this subsection shall be redacted pursuant to applicable law.

(g) After award of contract(s), all files relating to the procurement shall be considered public documents under OPRA and shall be redacted pursuant to OPRA and applicable law. The following provisions shall apply for all procurements:

1. Within its proposal, the bidder must identify in writing any data or materials it asserts are exempt from public inspection under OPRA or other governing law, and explain the legal basis for all such assertions;

2. Assertion by a bidder that its entire proposal is, or prices offered are, exempt from public inspection under OPRA or other governing law shall be presumed to be contrary to the law, and the Division need not give the bidder's assertion any effect. Such an assertion may result in the rejection of the proposal; and

3. In the event that the Division receives a challenge from any person or entity to a bidder's assertion that any of its data or materials are exempt from public inspection, the Division shall give the bidder notice of the challenge, and the Division shall allow the bidder to respond to the challenge in the same manner as the Division is afforded. The notice given by the Division shall be as much notice as practicable based on the circumstances of the challenge and the Division's legal obligations. If the bidder fails to timely respond to the notice of the challenge, the Division shall make its own determination as to whether the bidder's data or materials are exempt from public inspection under OPRA and shall not be liable to the bidder for any decision the Division makes.

N.J. Admin. Code § 17:12-2.6

Amended by 51 N.J.R. 141(a), effective 1/22/2019