Mississippi § 31-7-415 - Evaluation committee.

§ 31-7-415. Evaluation committee.

Evaluation committees shall be used to evaluate request for proposals or request for qualifications and award contracts. Persons appointed to an evaluation committee shall have the relevant experience necessary to evaluate the proposal or qualification. The members of the evaluation committee shall have no personal, financial or familial interest in any of the contract offerers, or principals thereof, to be evaluated. The names of the members of the evaluation committee shall not be publicly disclosed until their evaluation report as required under Section 31-7-423(1). The members’ names and job titles shall be made available to the public. Where evaluation committee members are not public employees, those members’ names, educational and professional qualifications, and practical experience, that were the basis for the appointment, shall be made available to the public. Before evaluating proposals or qualifications, each individual participating in the evaluation of a proposal or qualification shall execute a statement in accordance with subsection (1) of this section certifying that he or she does not have a conflict of interest. The statement shall be filed with the chief procurement officer of the soliciting agency, before beginning the evaluation process. The certification shall be as follows: “I hereby certify that I have reviewed the conflict of interest standards prescribed herein, and that I do not have a conflict of interest with respect to the evaluation of this proposal or qualification. I further certify that I am not engaged in any negotiations or arrangements for prospective employment or association with any of the offerers submitting proposals or qualifications or their parent or subsidiary organization.” Committee members may conduct their work separately or together. The committee may use advisors, as it deems necessary to give opinions on evaluating proposals or qualifications, except that such advisors shall be subject to the provisions of subsection (3) of this section. The names of the advisors shall be made public at the same time as members of the evaluation committee as provided in subsection (2) of this section. For the purposes of this section, the term “advisors” shall mean those individuals who provide such significant input to a member or members of the evaluation committee that the advisor’s opinions are fundamental in shaping the committee member’s evaluation of the submitted proposals or qualifications. The process of establishing weighting criteria and evaluating proposals or qualifications shall result in a finding that a specific proposal or qualification is the most practical and advantageous, price and other factors considered, or that all proposals or qualifications should be rejected.