A. Contracts for consulting services which have a total maximum amount of compensation less than one hundred fifty thousand dollars for a twelve-month period may be awarded without the necessity of competitive bidding or competitive negotiation.
B. Contracts for consulting services which have a total maximum amount of compensation of one hundred fifty thousand dollars or more for a twelve-month period shall be awarded through a request for proposal, reverse auction process, invitation to negotiate, or cooperative purchasing under rules and regulations issued by the office of state procurement. Service requirements shall not be artificially divided so as to exempt contracts from the request for proposal process.
C.(1) All contracts for consulting services may be entered into with the assistance of a procurement support team as provided herein, and in accordance with guidelines promulgated and published by the office of state procurement.
(2) For each such consulting contract the office of state procurement may establish a procurement support team which shall include one or more representatives from each of the following:
(a) The office of state procurement.
(b) The using agency initiating the contract.
(c) The office of the attorney general.
(d) The legislative fiscal office.
(3) Participation of the procurement support team may include, at a minimum, assistance in development or review of the request for proposals, evaluation of responses received to the request for proposals, and formulation of recommendations to be submitted to the state chief procurement officer concerning the final contract.