Prior to the commencement of evaluation, the evaluation secretariat shall prepare and provide to the evaluation panel the bids, bid evaluation templates and such other documentation that may be necessary to conduct the bid evaluations, including any further instructions and guidance material that may be necessary.
The evaluation secretariat shall ensure the bid evaluation templates (and any further instructions and guidance material) mirror the structure and indicated evaluation criteria and process of the RFP.
The evaluation panel may receive training to familiarize it with the requirements of the evaluation, process for assessing and evaluating the bids, and answer any questions related to the responsibilities of the bid evaluation panel (including for example, confidentiality, maintaining objectivity, being free from conflicts of interest, clarifying evaluation criteria, etc.).
Each evaluation panel member shall confirm in writing that they are free of conflicts of interest, shall remain so throughout the evaluation proceedings, and shall notify the appropriate parties in accordance with the conflict of interest provisions of this Manual. The members shall also confirm their understanding of their evaluation responsibilities and that they shall undertake their evaluation in a neutral, unbiased manner, evaluating each proposal only on its own merit and solely against the RFP evaluation factors.