Clarification questions will be sent to respondents or proponents as necessary so the Evaluation Teams fully understand the information submitted by proponents. All clarification questions are to be prepared by the Evaluation Team and submitted to the Project Manager to approve and send the respondent/proponent. The clarification question process will follow the same process as the Question and Answer from the respondent/proponent. To the extent possible, clarification questions will adhere to the following guidelines:
■ Respondents/proponents will be required to respond to clarification questions in writing (including fax or e-mail);
■ Respondents to the RFQ should not be asked to submit substantial, new information not contained in their original submission. The intent is that the Evaluation Teams clarify information in the original submission that is insufficient, ambiguous or inconclusive so the Evaluation Teams can conduct a fair evaluation;
■ In the event the Evaluation Teams cannot locate specific information for the evaluation, clarification questions should ask proponents to point out where such information is located, rather than providing new information;
■ Clarification questions should refer to specific sections in the RFQ/RFP to reiterate the requirements of the RFQ/RFP; and
■ Clarification questions should be consistent, particularly when similar questions are posed to different respondents/proponents. If one proponent is asked to clarify on a particular issue, another respondents/proponent with the same or similar issue should be asked the same clarification question.
All Evaluation Teams will determine whether clarification questions are needed and draft the clarification questions they need to pose to the respondents/proponents.
Respondents/proponents need to have a reasonable amount of time (generally two business days) to prepare their responses to clarification questions. The amount of time may vary depending on the nature and complexity of the clarification questions. The Evaluation Teams may reduce the response time if the clarification questions are deemed sufficiently simple. If respondents/proponents request additional time, the Evaluation Teams will need to be prepared to address such requests from the fairness perspective.
For convenience, questions from the Evaluation Teams will be batched prior to issuance to respondents/proponents.
The process of sending clarification questions to respondents/proponents and receiving clarification answers from respondents/proponents should follow these procedures:
■ The Evaluation Teams will send clarification questions to the Project Manager, who will review them with the Process Consultant or other project team member delegated the responsibility for managing the clarification process;
■ The Process Consultant will receive, review and file those questions. The Process Consultant will assign a number to each clarification question indicating:
o which evaluation team is asking the clarification question;
o which respondent/proponent each clarification question is for;
o when each clarification question is sent to respondents/proponents; and
o when the clarification answer is received from respondents/proponents.
■ If a clarification question is not sent, this fact is to be noted and the reason for not sending the clarification question specified;
■ The Process Consultant will, on a frequent basis as determined appropriate:
o Prepare a consolidated set of clarification questions for each respondent/proponent, using the numbers assigned in step (1); and
o Propose any necessary changes to wording to ensure fairness and consistency;
■ The Project Manager will distribute the clarification questions to respondents/proponents by email to the designated respondent/proponent contact person;
■ The email will clearly specify the deadline to provide answers to the Project Manager;
■ Respondents/proponents may be given around two business days to provide clarification answers in writing by fax or email to the Project Manager. In the event that respondents/proponents request additional time, the Project Manager will consult with the consultants and the Fairness Auditor to ensure that the project objective and process probity are not materially compromised by granting the request;
■ Answers received by the Project Manager will be distributed to the Evaluation Teams that posed the clarification questions;
■ The evaluators will incorporate the clarification answers into the evaluation process;
■ In the event that the clarification answers are deemed insufficient, follow-up clarification questions will be sent according to the same procedures;
■ If a respondent/proponent fails to provide clarification answers by the specified deadline, the Project Manager will contact the respondent/proponent to confirm whether the clarification answers should be expected; and
■ If the respondent/proponent confirms that it has no intention of providing the clarification answers, the Project Manager will notify the Evaluation Teams that clarification answers from the respondent/proponent will not be included in the evaluation process. In this case, the evaluation teams will continue the evaluation process based on information already available.