§ 50-4. Compliance with state and federal requirements.

(a)

Public access to procurement information .

(1)

Procurement information shall be public record to the extent required by S.C. Code 1976, tit. 30, ch. 4 (Freedom of Information Act), as amended, with the exception that commercial or financial information obtained in response to any type of solicitation which is privileged and confidential shall not be disclosed.

(2)

Privileged and confidential information is information in specific detail not customarily released to the general public, the release of which may cause harm to the competitive position of the party supplying the information.

(3)

For all documents submitted in response or with regard to a solicitation or other request, the documents need not be disclosed if an award is not made.

(4)

Prior to a bid opening, the identity and number of bids received shall be made available to county employees on a need-to-know basis only.

(5)

Evaluative documents pre-decisional in nature such as intra-departmental or inter-divisional memoranda containing technical evaluations and recommendations are exempted so long as the contract award does not expressly adopt or incorporate the intra-departmental or inter-divisional memoranda reflecting the pre-decisional deliberations.

(6)

For all documents submitted in response or with regard to any solicitation or other request, the person submitting the documents shall comply with instructions provided in the solicitation for marking information exempt from public disclosure. Information not marked as required by the applicable instructions may be disclosed to the public.

(b)

Compliance with federal requirements. Where a procurement involves the expenditure of federal assistance or contract funds, the director of procurement and county council shall comply with such federal law and authorized regulations which are mandatorily applicable and which are not reflected in this chapter.

(c)

Standards of conduct. In all actions involving the procurement of supplies, services, or construction for the county, the provisions of S.C. Code 1976, tit. 8, ch. 13 (the State Ethics Act) shall be complied with.

(Ord. No. 97-4-18, § V, 4-28-1997; Ord. No. 16-07-28, 7-25-2016)