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76 SECTION 5: EVALUATION PROCESS | 2014_0122 SECTION 5: EVALUATION PROCESS Except at the invitation of the Master Agreement Administrator, no activity or comments from responders regarding this RFP shall be discussed with any of the sourcing team during the solicitation and the evaluation of the responses. A responder who contacts a sourcing team member may, as a result, have its response rejected. Non-selection of any response will mean that either another response was determined to be more advantageous to the Lead State or that the Lead State exercised its right to reject all responses. At its discretion, the Lead State may perform an appropriate cost and pricing analysis of a vendor’s response, including an audit of the reasonableness of any response. During the evaluation process, all information concerning the responses submitted will remain private and will not be disclosed to anyone whose official duties do not require such knowledge. At any time during the evaluation, the Lead State may request that a responder provide explicit written clarification to any part of its response. Responses are private or nonpublic data until the completion of the evaluation process as defined by Minn. Stat. § 13.591. The completion of the evaluation process is defined as the Lead State having completed negotiating the Master Agreement with the selected vendor. If no award is made the responses are not made public. The State will notify all responders in writing of the evaluation results. If only one response is submitted to the solicitation, the Lead State reserves the right to review the response submitted for compliance and to award without assigning points or to reject the offer and re-issue the solicitation, whatever is in the Lead State’s best interest. Per the contract terms and conditions: Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, the Lead State reserves the right to: a. reject any and all responses received; b. select, for Master Agreements or for negotiations, a response other than that with the lowest cost; c. waive or modify any informalities, irregularities, or inconsistencies in the responses received; d. negotiate any aspect of the proposal with any responder and negotiate with more than one responder; e. request a BEST and FINAL OFFER, if the Lead State deems it necessary and desirable; and f. Suspend and/or terminate negotiations for the State, prepare and release a new RFP, or take such other action as the State deems appropriate if negotiations fail to result in a successful Master Agreement. g. Eliminate an item from consideration from all responses. h. Enter the highest price item of all responses received when an item has not been provided by a responder. i. Request additional pricing items for consideration. j. Clarify pricing responses with responder(s). k. Include options, quantity discounts and/or services for basis of calculating the cost utilized in evaluation. Preferences and prompt pay discount will be applied when evaluating cost as detailed in the Terms and Conditions or as otherwise specified in the solicitation PHASES. The State shall conduct an evaluation of responses to this RFP. The evaluations will be conducted in four phases: Phase I - Review and select responsive, compliant responses Phase II - Evaluate responses Phase III - Select finalists Phase IV - Sign Master Agreements Phase I - Review and Select Responsive, Compliant Responses. The purpose of this phase is to determine if each response complies with the mandatory terms, conditions, and specifications in the RFP. A pass/fail criteria will be used. A response must comply with all instructions listed in this RFP. The Lead State reserves the right to reject any and all responses, to modify these RFP specifications, or to waive any informalities in the RFP. Any response found to be non-responsive will be eliminated from further evaluation.