18-4-302. Methods of source selection. (1) Unless otherwise authorized by law, all state contracts for supplies and services must be awarded by competitive sealed bidding, pursuant to 18-4-303, except as provided in 18-4-133, 18-4-304 through 18-4-306, chapters 5 and 8 of this title, and subsections (2) and (3) of this section. Supplies or services offered for sale, lease, or rental by public utilities are exempt from this requirement if the prices of the supplies or services are regulated by the public service commission or other governmental authority.
     (2) At the time that the department or a purchasing agency opens bids or proposals, if a supplier's current publicly advertised or established catalog price is received at or before the time that the bids or proposals are opened and is less than the bid of the lowest responsible and responsive bidder or offeror or improves upon the conditions for the best proposal received using the same factors and weights included in the proposal, the department or purchasing agency may reject all bids and purchase the supply from that supplier without meeting the requirements of 18-4-303 through 18-4-306.
     (3) An office supply procured by the department's central stores program through bulk purchase or procured under a term contract may be purchased by a purchasing agency, without meeting the requirements of 18-4-303 through 18-4-306, from a supplier whose publicly advertised price, established catalog price, or discount price offered to the purchasing agency is less than the price offered by the central stores program or under the term contract if the office supply conforms in all material respects to the terms, conditions, and quality offered by the central stores program or under the term contract. A state office supply term contract must include a provision by which the contracting parties acknowledge and agree to the provisions of this subsection.

     History: En. Sec. 13, Ch. 519, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 303, L. 1987; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 329, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 11, Sp. L. November 1993.