1415.207-70 Department of the Interior proposal and information handling procedures.

(a) General. This section establishes procedures that must be used in addition to those prescribed in FAR 15.207, for the use and disclosure of trade secret information and confidential commercial and financial information contained in solicited proposals.

(b) Marking of solicited proposals. A solicited proposal may contain trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information which the offeror, or its subcontractors, prefers not to be disclosed to the public or used by the Government for any purpose other than evaluation of the proposal. To notify the Government of trade secrets and confidential commercial or financial information contained in a proposal, offerors must mark the cover page of the proposal and each affected page of the proposal with the legends specified in the solicitation provision at 1452.215-71, Use and Disclosure of Proposal Information - Department of the Interior. COs and other government personnel evaluating a proposal shall not refuse to consider the proposal because it contains information identified as trade secret information or confidential commercial or financial information.

(c) Failure to mark. The Government assumes no liability for the disclosure or use of information contained in a proposal if not marked in accordance with 1452.215-71. If a request under the Freedom of Information Act is made for information in a proposal not marked in accordance with 1452.215-71, the offeror concerned shall be notified promptly of the request and given an opportunity to provide its position to the Government. However, failure of an offeror to mark information contained in a proposal as trade secret information or confidential commercial and financial information will be treated by the Government as evidence that the information is not exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, absent a showing that the failure to mark was due to unusual or extenuating circumstances, such as a showing that the offeror had intended to mark, but that markings were omitted from the offeror's proposal due to clerical error.

(d) Solicitation provision. The provision at 1452.215-71, Use and Disclosure of Proposal Information - Department of the Interior, shall be inserted in all requests for proposals and requests for quotations.