Conditions for Use. Competitive sealed proposals is the preferred method for the procurement of professional services. For any other use of competitive sealed proposals as a procurement method, the procurement officer shall make a determination that: Specifications cannot be prepared to support an award on price alone; or Competitive sealed bidding is not practicable, or is not advantageous to the Service. Request For Proposals. A request for proposals shall include: The date, time, and place for submission of proposals; The proposal requirements, including price proposals; The evaluation factors and relative importance of each; and A statement of work or scope of services required by the Service. A request for proposals may include other information the Service reasonably determines is necessary. The Service may conduct preproposal conferences, and may require that attendance by offerors be mandatory. Receipt of Proposals. A proposal, withdrawal, or modification received after the established due date and time at the place designated for receipt of proposals is late and may only be considered in accordance with Regulation .07E of this chapter. The Service may not open proposals publicly. The Service may not disclose the contents of a proposal to any person other than a person responsible for evaluating or reviewing the proposal before contract award. Proprietary information shall be examined by the procurement officer to determine validity of nondisclosure. The Service may not disclose proprietary information submitted by an offeror, except as required by law. An offeror shall acknowledge receipt of addenda in its proposal. Proposal Evaluation. The Service shall evaluate proposals using the evaluation factors set forth in the request for proposals. Technical and price proposals shall be evaluated independently of one another. The Service may establish a technical evaluation committee to evaluate proposals and make a recommendation of contract award to the Service. The technical evaluation committee may include members who are not employees of the Service. Discussions. The Service may conduct discussions with qualified offerors. A qualified offeror is an offeror that submits a proposal that is determined by the procurement officer to be reasonably susceptible of being selected for contract award. Discussions are held to: Ensure full understanding of the Service's requirements and of the offeror's proposal and ability to perform; Obtain the best price for the Service; and Facilitate arrival at a contract that is most advantageous to the Service, taking into consideration price and other relevant evaluation factors set forth in the request for proposals. The Service shall treat qualified offerors fairly and equally with respect to any opportunity for discussions, negotiations, and clarification of proposals. Best and Final Offers. The procurement officer may permit qualified offerors to revise their initial proposals by submitting best and final offers. The Service may require more than one series of submissions of best and final offers and discussions. If more than one submission of best and final offers is requested, an offeror's immediate previous offer shall be construed as its best and final offer unless the offeror submits a timely notice of withdrawal or another best and final offer. Contract Award. Upon completion of all discussions and negotiations, the procurement officer shall make a determination recommending award of the contract to the responsible offeror whose proposal is determined to be the most advantageous to the Service. The procurement officer shall promptly notify all offerors of the recommended contract award. Debriefing of Unsuccessful Offerors. When a contract is to be awarded on some basis other than price alone, an unsuccessful offeror may be debriefed upon the offeror's written request submitted to the procurement officer within 10 days after the offeror has knowledge that the contract is to be awarded to another offeror. Debriefings shall be conducted by a procurement official familiar with the rationale for the selection decision and contract award. Debriefing shall: Be limited to discussion of the unsuccessful offeror's proposal and may not include any discussion of a competing offeror's proposal; Be factual and consistent with the evaluation of the unsuccessful offeror's proposal; and Provide information on areas in which the unsuccessful offeror's technical proposal was considered weak or deficient. Debriefing may not include discussion or dissemination of the thoughts, notes, or rankings of individual members of an evaluation committee, but may include a summary of the procurement officer's rationale for the selection decision and recommended contract award. A summary of the debriefing shall be made a part of the contract file.