At the Agency's sole discretion, an RFP or RFQ may be canceled or any or all responses to the solicitation 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.
Solicitations should only be issued when there is a valid procurement need unless the solicitation states that it is for informational purposes only. The solicitation process requires expenditure of public sector time and resources, and preparing responses requires expenditure of private sector time and resources. However, nothing in this Section shall be construed as conferring any grievance right on any party when an Agency chooses to cancel its solicitation.
When a solicitation is canceled, Notice of Cancellation shall identify the solicitation being canceled and provide any information the Agency deems appropriate. The Notice of Cancellation shall:
Unless the solicitation states otherwise, proposals or qualifications need not be unconditionally accepted without alteration or correction. The stated requirements may be revised or clarified pursuant to Section 6.7.3 and any relevant subsections or Section 6.8.4.5. Agencies shall consider this flexibility in determining whether reasons exist for rejecting a proposal or qualification.
Reasons for rejecting individual proposals or qualifications include but are not limited to:
* the proposal or qualification was non-responsive to the solicitation;
* the offeror is deemed non-responsible;
* the proposal or qualification fails to meet the requirements of the Agency;
* the proposed price is clearly unreasonable;
* lack of competitiveness by reason of collusion or knowledge that reasonably available competition did not occur.
Where proposals or qualifications are individually rejected or the solicitation is canceled after proposals or qualifications are received, the Agency shall have the sole discretion to determine whether to return proposals or qualifications to the offeror or retain the proposal or qualification in the Agency Procurement File. If the Agency chooses to return rejected proposals or qualifications to the offeror, the Agency shall ensure enough information is retained in the Agency Procurement File to support the Agency's decision to reject it.
12 Miss. Code. R. 9-6.10