Clemson University, in accordance with South Carolina Procurement Code, Section 11-35-1570, and regulation 19-445.2110, is providing public notice of the award of an emergency contract to Oobe for a total potential value of $140,000 for cloth masks in bulk quantity that can be washed and reused, meeting CDC specifications, to be used by the University (employees, students and others) as part of recover phases from COVID-19. We identified the need for these masks and ordered 2 types back in May to sample and pass out to employees. We now need to order another 35,000 to provide to students for their return to campus. If we didn’t have these masks it could potentially lead to delay in opening of campus, significantly hindering University operations in Fall 2020. We discussed with MANY potential suppliers who seemed to maybe have supplies but were either unwilling to commit to pricing or delivery and rather they appeared to be offering to the highest bidder or would only commit to delivery whenever they had supply, with no other option leaving Clemson with a solid commitment. Conducting an open bid would have risked us losing out on potential options as they filled orders elsewhere and we couldn't risk getting low quality product. Clemson intends to order from the two suppliers we already ordered from to provide students the same masks employees received. Therefore this order is an emergency procurement.

Bidder’s right to protest as listed in Section 11-35-4210 in the South Carolina Consolidated Procurement Code applies to this announcement of an emergency procurement.

PROTESTS (MAY 2019). If you are aggrieved in connection with the solicitation or award of the contract, you may be entitled to protest, but only as provided in Section 11-35-4210. To protest a solicitation, you must submit a protest within fifteen days of the date the applicable solicitation document is issued. To protest an award, you must (i) submit notice of your intent to protest within seven business days of the date the award notice is posted, and (ii) submit your actual protest within fifteen days of the date the award notice is posted. Days are calculated as provided in Section 11-35-310(13). Both protests and notices of intent to protest must be in writing and must be received by the appropriate Chief Procurement Officer within the time provided. See clause entitled “Protest-CPO”. The grounds of the protest and the relief requested must be set forth with enough particularity to give notice of the issues to be decided. [02-2A085-2]

PROTEST - CPO - MMO ADDRESS (JUN 2006): Any protest must be addressed to the Chief Procurement Officer, Materials Management Office, and submitted in writing (a) by email to: protest-mmo@mmo.state.sc.us or (b) by post or delivery to 1201 Main Street, Suite 600, Columbia, SC 29201.