1-02 General Conditions Request For Proposals (1).pdf

Joel Klemmer Director of Procurement jklemmer@gmcs.org

Senior Procurement Buyer

Hugo Cano

Buyers

Rebecca Bertinetti

Gregory Hudson

Breana Kesner

640 S. BOARDMAN, GALLUP, NM 87301 | 505-721-1000 | GMCS.ORG

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

GENERAL CONDITIONS

INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS: The purchase of any and all supplies, equipment, or services by the Gallup-McKinley County Schools (GMCS), pursuant to any advertisement or request for proposals is subject to the following terms and conditions:

1. Sealed Proposals: All proposals must be submitted via the GMCS Bonfire eBidding portal prior to the time specified as the “closing” of the solicitation on the portals and in the Advertisement for Proposals. All proposals must be submitted as instructed on the portal. All proposals must be signed by a responsible and authorized person for the bidding firm; failure to do so may result in disqualification of their respective proposal. NOTE: FAX TRANSMITTAL, ELECTRONIC MAIL (EMAIL) TRANSMITTAL, AND HARDCOPY PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. The portal will not allow for submission of proposals after the “closing” date and time.

2. Modifications or Withdrawal: Proposals may be modified or withdrawn prior to the “closing” date and time for the solicitation, by the Offeror on the GMCS Bonfire portal.

Withdrawal of a proposal after the closing date and time is governed by applicable procurement regulations.

3. Proposal Closing and Unsealing of Contents: The “unsealing” of the proposals shall be conducted in private to maintain the confidentiality of the contents of all proposals. The District may release ONLY the names of the Vendors submitting offers at the time of the unsealing.

4. Note: These documents constitute a "Request for Proposal" or RFP. It is a request for an offer. As such, it allows alternate offers or proposals to be considered and the terms and conditions may be subject to negotiations to reach best and final offers. All information requested for submittal should be included with the offer, and exceptions or alternates clearly noted.

5. Proposal Offer Firm: Responses to this RFP, including proposal prices for services, will be considered firm for one hundred twenty (120) days after the due date for receipt of proposals or ninety (90) days after the due date for the receipt of a best and final offer, if the Offeror is invited or required to submit one.

Request For Proposals

General Conditions

6. Amendments: If any questions or responses require revision to the solicitation as originally published, such revisions will be by formal Amendment only. If the solicitation includes a contact person for technical information, Offerors are cautioned that any oral or written representations made by this or any person that appear to change materially any portion of the solicitation shall not be relied upon unless subsequently ratified by a written Amendment to this solicitation issued by the Procurement Office. For a determination as to whether any representation made requires that an amendment be issued, contact the Procurement Office.

7. Disclosure of Proposal Contents:

a. Proposals will be kept confidential until negotiations and the award are completed by the District. At that time, all proposals and documents pertaining to the proposals will be open to the public, except for material that is clearly marked proprietary or confidential. The Procurement Manager will not disclose or make public any pages of a proposal on which the potential offeror has stamped or imprinted “proprietary” or “confidential” subject to the following requirements:

b. Proprietary or confidential data shall be readily separable from the proposal in order to facilitate eventual public inspection of the non-confidential portion of the proposal.

c. Confidential data is restricted to:

i. Confidential financial information concerning the Offferor’s organization;

ii. Data that qualifies as trade secret in accordance with the Uniform Trade Act, §57-3A-1 to 57-3A-7, NMSA 1978

iii. PLEASE NOTE: The price of products offered or cost of services proposed shall not be designated as proprietary or confidential information.

d. If a request is received for disclosure of data for which an Offeror has made a written request for confidentiality, the District shall examine the Offeror’s request and make a written determination that specifies which portions of the proposal should be disclosed. Unless the Offeror takes legal action to prevent the disclosure, the proposal will be so disclosed. The proposal shall be open to public inspection subject to any continuing prohibition on the disclosure of confidential data.

8. Competency of Offeror: Proposals will be considered only from firms which are regularly engaged in providing the type of materials or service described in the solicitation documents, and who can provide evidence that they have established a satisfactory record of performance to insure they can execute the requirements as stated herein. Any determination as to competency shall be made by appropriate GMCS staff.

9. Offeror Qualifications: The Evaluation Committee may, via the Procurement Manager, make such investigations as necessary to determine the ability of the potential Offeror to adhere to the requirements specified within this RFP. The Evaluation Committee will reject the proposal of any potential Offeror who is not a Responsible Offeror or fails to submit a responsive offer as defined in NMSA 1978, § 13-1-83 and 13-1-85.

10. Prime Contractor Responsibility: Any contractual agreement that may result from this RFP shall specify that the prime contractor is solely responsible for fulfillment of all requirements of the contractual agreement with the District which may derive from this RFP. The District entering into a contractual agreement with a vendor will make payments to only the prime contractor.

11. Subcontractors/Consent: Use of subcontractors shall be clearly explained in the proposal, and major subcontractors must be identified by name. The prime contractor shall be wholly responsible for the entire performance of the contractual agreement whether or not subcontractors are used. Additionally, the prime contractor must receive approval, in writing, from the District awarding any resultant contract before any subcontractor is used during the term of this agreement.

12. Notice to Offerors: Unnecessarily elaborate responses beyond that sufficient to present a complete and effective response to the solicitation are not desired and may be construed as an indication of the Offeror’s lack of cost consciousness. Unless specifically requested in the solicitation, elaborate artwork, corporate brochures, lengthy narratives, expensive paper, specialized binding, and other extraneous presentation materials are neither necessary nor desired.

13. Evaluation of Proposals: Proposals shall be evaluated based on demonstrated competence and qualification for the type of service required and based on the criteria set forth in the Request For Proposals (RFP). For purposes of conducting discussions, proposals may initially be classified as:

a. Acceptable

b. Potentially Acceptable, that is reasonably likely of being made acceptable or;

c. Unacceptable

14. No Obligation: This RFP in no manner obligates the District to eventual rental, lease, purchase, etc. of any equipment, software, or services as offered until a valid written contract is awarded and approved by appropriate authorities.

15. Termination: This RFP may be canceled at any time and any and all proposals may be rejected in whole or in part when the District determines such action to be in the best interest of the District.

16. Discussions with Individual Offerors: The Board is under no obligation to conduct discussions with any or all Offerors. The Board specifically reserves the right to award the contract with no discussions with Offerors and based only on the written proposals received by the due date and time. Discussions may be conducted with any or all responsible Offerors who submit proposals found to be reasonably likely to be selected for award. Offerors submitting proposals may be afforded an opportunity for discussion and revision after submission and prior to award for the purpose of obtaining best and final offers. After obtaining best and final offers, the award shall be made to the responsible Offeror(s) whose proposals are most advantageous to Gallup-McKinley County Schools.

17. Purpose of Discussions: Discussions may be held to:

a. Promote understanding of District’s requirement(s) and the Offeror’s proposal.

b. Obtaining best and final offers

c. Facilitate arrival at a contract that will be most advantageous to the Board taking into consideration the evaluation factors set forth in the Request for Proposals.

18. Conduct of Discussions: If the Board exercises its option to conduct discussions, the procurement officer will establish procedures and schedules for conducting these discussions. If during discussions there is a need to any substantial clarification of or change in the Request for Proposals, the request shall be amended to incorporate such clarification or change. Any substantial oral clarification of a proposal shall be reduced to writing by the Offeror.

19. Negotiations: The Board’s designee shall negotiate, if needed, a contract with the

Highest Qualified Offeror at compensation determined in writing to be fair and reasonable, taking into account the estimated value of the services and the scope, complexity and nature of the services. Should the designee be unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the Offerors considered to be the most qualified at a price determined to be fair and reasonable, negotiations with that business shall be terminated. Negotiations shall be undertaken with the second most qualified business. This process shall continue until a satisfactory contract is negotiated with a qualified business or the procurement process is terminated and a new Request for Proposals is initiated.

20. Taxes: The proposal total shall exclude all applicable taxes. GMCS will pay any taxes due on the contract based upon billing submitted by the Contractor, at the applicable tax rate. Taxes shall be shown as a separate amount on any billing or request for payment.

21. Payment Terms: Payment for tangible goods or services shall be in accordance with §13-1-158, NMSA 1978 as amended. Payment will be issued for undisputed invoices after goods have been received or services have been rendered, thirty (30) days after receipt of goods or rendering of services.

22. Mandatory Requirements: Mandatory requirements may be waived by the Board if all of the otherwise responsive Offeror’s failed to comply with the same mandatory requirement and the failure to do so does not otherwise materially affect the procurement. The Board shall have the right to request subsequent information from the otherwise responsive Offerors.

23. Award: The award, if made, shall be made to the responsible and responsive Offeror or Offerors whose proposal is most advantageous to GMCS, taking into consideration the evaluation factors set forth in the Request For Proposals.

24. Contract Terms and Conditions: The contract resulting from this RFP will follow the format specified by GMCS and contain the terms and conditions set forth herein. The contents of this RFP, as revised and/or supplemented, and the successful Offeror’s proposal will be incorporated into the contract. Should an Offeror object to any of the Board’s terms and conditions, that Offer must propose specific alternative language that would be acceptable to the Board. Offerors must provide a brief discussion of the purpose and impact, if any, of each proposed change followed by the specific proposed alternate wording. General references to the Offeror’s terms and conditions or attempts at complete substitutions are not acceptable to the Board and will result in disqualification of the Offeror’s proposal.

25. Offeror’s Terms and Conditions: Offerors must submit with the proposal a complete set of any additional terms and conditions they expect to have included in a contract negotiated with the District. The Evaluation Committee or Procurement Manager may, in its sole discretion, evaluate or consider any additional terms and conditions submitted with an Offeror’s response. This applies to any language appearing in or attached to the document as part of the Offeror’s response. By execution and delivery of this Request for Proposals and response(s), the Offeror agrees that any additional terms and conditions, whether submitted purposely or inadvertently, shall have no force or effect unless expressly accepted by the District.

26. Contract Deviations: Any additional terms and conditions, which may be the subject of negotiation (such terms and conditions having been proposed during the procurement process, that is, the RFP process prior to selection as successful Offeror), will be discussed only between the District and the Offeror selected and shall not be deemed an opportunity to amend the Offeror’s proposal.

27. Incurring Cost: Any cost incurred by the Offeror in preparation, transmittal, cancellation, presentation of any proposal or material submitted in response to this RFP shall be borne solely by the Offeror.

28. Right to Protest: Any bidder, offeror or contractor who is aggrieved in connection with a procurement may protest to the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) for the District. The protest shall be submitted in writing within 15 calendar days after the facts of the occurrences giving rise thereto §13-1-172, NMSA 1978 as amended.

29. Protest Bond and Filing of Protest:

a. A Protest Bond in the amount of Eight Hundred ($800.00) Dollars from a surety company authorized to do business in this state, or in the form of a cashier’s check made payable to Gallup McKinley County Schools, or cash shall be included with the timely protest to cover the District’s administrative costs incurred to administer the protest. In the event that the protest is upheld the Protest bond shall be returned to the protesting bidder. If the protest is disallowed, then the protesting bidder will forfeit the bond to the District.

b. Protest must be written: Protests must be in writing and addressed to the Chief Procurement Officer.

c. Contents: The protest shall:

i. include the name and address of the protestant;

ii. include the solicitation number;

iii. contain a statement of the grounds for protest;

iv. include supporting exhibits, evidence or documents to substantiate any claim unless not available within the filing time in which case the expected availability date shall be indicated; and

v. specify the ruling requested from the Chief Procurement Officer.

d. Pleadings: No formal pleading is required to initiate a protest, but protests should be concise, logically arranged, and direct.

e. Time limit: Protests shall be submitted within 15 calendar days after knowledge of the facts or occurrences giving rise to the protest. Any person or business that has been sent written notice of any fact or occurrence is presumed to have knowledge of the fact or occurrence. Posting on the District’s website or eBidding portal (Bonfire) is considered public notice in this regard as well.

30. Contract Renewal: Except when either party shall provide written notice of termination or that the contract shall expire on the anniversary date, multi-term contracts shall automatically renew for an additional term, up to the maximum number of terms stated in any Special Terms and Conditions.

31. Month to Month Continuation: After completion of the initial contract term, an agreement may be continued on a month-to-month basis, upon mutual consent of both parties. This agreement may be extended after all renewal terms have expired for a duration, not to exceed six (6) calendar months, for the District to competitively solicit and award same services.

32. Cancellation for Convenience: GMCS reserves the right to cancel any contract resulting from this request for convenience by giving thirty (30) days written notice to the vendor. The District shall be liable to the vendor for any services provided or material ordered and accepted prior to termination.

33. Cancellation for Cause: If the vendor fails to fulfill any obligation resulting from this contract in a timely and responsive manner, or it the vendor violates any of the terms of this contract, GMCS shall have the right to cancel the contract by giving written notice of cancellation to the vendor. Cancellation of contracts in excess of $3,000.00 on an annual basis, may be cause for debarment of a person or vendor to receive invitation for bids or to be awarded a contract for a period of one year.

34. Cooperative Procurement Agreement: This procurement is under a Cooperative

Procurement Agreement which includes, Gallup-McKinley County Schools, the City of Gallup and McKinley County which may purchase the same item(s)/service(s) listed in this bid. Further, other school districts, state agencies or others allowed by law may utilize this solicitation as provided by §13-1-129, NMSA 1978 as amended. GMCS is not responsible for any misuse or misrepresentation of these contracts by contractor or other procurement agencies.

35. Equal Opportunity Compliance: All firms, their employees and agents, agree to comply with the Gallup-McKinley County Schools “policy for Prohibition of Harassment, Discrimination, or Violence based on Race, Religion, Sex, Disability, or Age.” The Contractor agrees to abide by all Federal and State laws and rules and regulations, and executive orders of the Governor of the State of New Mexico, pertaining to equal employment opportunity. In accordance with all such laws and rules and regulations, and executive orders of the Governor of the State of New Mexico, the Contractor agrees to assure that no person in the United States shall, on the grounds of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual preference, age or handicap, be excluded from employment with or participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under, any program or activity performed under this Agreement. If the Contractor is found to be not in compliance with these requirements during the life of this Agreement, the Contractor agrees to take appropriate steps to correct these deficiencies.

36. Appropriations: The terms of this Agreement are contingent upon sufficient monies being made available by GMCS for the performance of this Agreement. If sufficient appropriations and authorizations are not made by GMCS, this Agreement shall terminate upon written notice being given by GMCS to the Contractor. The school district's decision as to whether sufficient appropriations are available shall be accepted by the Contractor and shall be final.

37. Procurement Code: The State of New Mexico Procurement Code and Regulations shall apply.

38. Procurement Code Violations: The Procurement Code imposes civil and criminal penalties for its violation. In addition, the New Mexico Criminal Statutes impose felony penalties for illegal bribes, gratuities, and kick-backs.

39. Information: If clarification is needed on any part of the solicitation documents as published, please provide question(s) in the Messages Tab, “Vendor Discussions” on the GMCS Bonfire portal. Failure to do so may result in question(s) not being addressed.

40. THE GALLUP-McKINLEY COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD OF EDUCATION RESERVES

THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY OR ALL BIDS IN WHOLE OR IN PART, TO WAIVE

TECHNICALITIES AND TO ACCEPT THE PROPOSAL IT DEEMS TO BE IN THE

BEST INTEREST OF THE SCHOOL DISTRICT.