(A) (1) A solicitation may provide that offers will be received and contracts will be awarded separately or for any combination of lines or classes of supplies or services contained in the solicitation.
(2) If the solicitation does not indicate how separate contracts might be awarded, the purchasing agent may award separate contracts to different offerors only if the purchasing agent makes a written determination that the award of separate contracts is in the interest of efficiency or economy.
(3) If the purchasing agent awards a contract for a line or class of supplies or services, or any combination of lines or classes, to an offeror other than the lowest offeror, the purchasing agent must make a written determination stating the reasons for awarding a contract to that offeror.
(B) A solicitation may provide that the purchasing agent will award a contract for supplies or services for an unspecified number of items at a fixed price per unit and that the contract may contain a formula or method for the escalation of the unit price.
(C) A notice or other materials that are to be sent by mail may be sent by electronic means, as provided for in:
(1) Rules adopted by the governmental body;
(2) Written policies of the purchasing agent; or
(3) The solicitation; provided that, the rules, policies or solicitation provide that the electronic transmission of the information is at least as efficient and secure as sending the information by mail.
(D) A governmental body may receive electronic offers if:
(1) The solicitation describes the procedure for transmitting the electronic offer; and
(2) The governmental body receives the transmission on a fax machine or other system with a security feature that protects the contents of the offer with the same degree of protection as the content of an offer not transmitted electronically.
(E) (1) Whenever public notice of a purchase is required, it must be done in accordance with I.C. 5-3-1. The purchasing agent may notice in addition to notice given under I.C. 5-3-1 if the purchasing agent determines it will increase competition. The purchasing agent shall schedule all notice to provide a reasonable amount of time for preparation and submission of responses after notification.
(2) The period between the last publication, mailing or posting of notices and the final date for submitting offers must be at least seven days. Note that, with respect to receiving bids, I.C. 5-3-1 requires at least ten days between the last publication and the final date for submitting bids.
(F) (1) The purchasing agent may:
(a) Cancel a solicitation; or
(b) Reject all offers, in whole or in part, as specified in the solicitation, if the purchasing agent determines it is in the best interests of the governmental body.
(2) The reasons for a cancellation of a solicitation or a rejection of all offers must be made part of the contract file.
(G) An offer may be opened after the time stated in the solicitation if:
(1) The governmental body makes a written determination that it is in the best interest of the governmental body to delay the opening; and
(2) The date, time and place of the rescheduled opening is announced at the date, time and place of the originally scheduled opening.
(H) Generally speaking, contract and purchasing records are public records subject to public inspection and copying in accordance with the Public Records Statute, being I.C. 5-14-3-1 et seq.
(I) However, a governmental body may establish policies or adopt rules for the protection of documents submitted to the governmental body in response to a solicitation. Such rules or policies may provide procedures for:
(1) Protection of offers before opening to prevent disclosure of the contents;
(2) Affording unobstructed evaluation of offers and the contract awards by the purchasing agent after opening; and
(3) Protection of offers from tampering before and after opening.
(2013 Code, Title II, Ch. 31, § 6) (Ord. I-F-1-a(5), passed 6-8-1998)