At the Agency's sole discretion, an IFB may be canceled, all bids may be rejected, or individual bids may be rejected when the Agency determines that it is in the Agency's best interest to do so. A memorandum stating the reasons for the cancellation or rejection shall be made part of the Agency Procurement File.
The solicitation process requires expenditure of time and resources for both public Agencies and private businesses. Accordingly, solicitations should only be issued when there is a valid procurement need unless the solicitation states that it is for informational purposes only. However, nothing in this Section shall be construed as conferring any grievance right on any party when an Agency chooses to cancel a solicitation.
When an IFB is canceled, a Notice of Cancellation shall be prepared. The Notice shall identify the solicitation being canceled and provide any information the Agency deems appropriate. The Notice of Cancellation shall:
Reasons for rejecting individual bids include but are not limited to:
* the bid was non-responsive to the solicitation;
* the bidder is deemed non-responsible;
* the Agency - in its sole discretion - determined the proposed price is unreasonable even if it was the lowest responsive and responsible bid;
* lack of competitiveness by reason of collusion or knowledge that reasonably available competition did not occur.
Where bids are individually rejected, or the solicitation is canceled after bids are received, the Agency shall have the sole discretion to determine whether to return bids to the bidder or retain the bids in the Agency Procurement File. If the Agency chooses to return the bids to the bidders, the Agency shall ensure enough information is retained in the Agency Procurement File to support the decision to reject the bid.
12 Miss. Code. R. 9-5.7