110 STAT. 3886 PUBLIC LAW 104-322—OCT. 19, 1996 officers or employees. The report of audit shall be prepared in accordance with generally accepted auditing principles and shall be filed with the Chairman and other officers as the Board shall direct. Copies of the report shall be distributed to each Director, to the Congress, to the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia, to the Governors of Virginia and Maryland, to the Washington Suburban Transit Commission, to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and to the governing bodies of the political subdivisions located within the Zone which are parties to commitments for participation in the financing of the Authority and shall be made available for public distribution.". (7) Section 73 is amended to read as follows: "Contracting and Purchasing "73. (a)(1) Except as provided in subsections (b), (c), and (f) of this section, and except in the case of procurement procedures otherwise expressly authorized by statute, the Authority in conducting a procurement of property, services, or construction shall: "(A) obtain mil and open competition through the use of competitive procedures in accordance with the requirements of this Section; and "(B) use the competitive procedure or combination of competitive procedures that is best suited under the circumstances of the procurement. "(2) In determining the competitive procedure appropriate under the circumstances, the Authority shall: "(A) solicit sealed bids if: "(i) time permits the soHcitation, submission, and evaluation of sealed bids; "(ii) the award will be made on the basis of price and other price-related factors; "(iii) it is not necessary to conduct discussions with the responding sources about their bids; and "(iv) there is a reasonable expectation of receiving more than one sealed bid; or "(B) request competitive proposals if sealed bids are not appropriate under clause (A) of this paragraph, "(b) The Authority may provide for the procurement of property, services, or construction covered by this Section using competitive procedures but excluding a particular source in order to establish or maintain an alternative source or sources of supply for that property, service, or construction if the Authority determines that excluding the source would increase or maintain competition and would likely result in reduced overall costs for procurement of property, services, or construction. "(c) The Authority may use procedures other than competitive procedures if: "(1) the property, services, or construction needed by the Authority is available from only one responsible source and no other t5rpe of property, services, or construction will satisfy the needs of the Authority; or "(2) the Authority's need for the property, services, or construction is of such an unusual and compelling urgency that the Authority would be seriously injured unless the Authority limits the number of sources from which it soUcits bids or proposals; or
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