The administrative decision by the Indian Preference Office,
together with all requests, documents, and correspondence filed in
the proceeding, shall constitute the exclusive administrative appeal
hearing record. The record shall be compiled, certified and maintained
by the Indian Preference Office in accordance with applicable record
retention requirements prescribed by the Government Records Manager.
Both parties shall be afforded access to the record; however, the
Indian preference business shall not be provided any documents which
include any proprietary information of other companies or bidders,
such as pricing, statement of qualification or bid/cost proposals
submitted by such other bidders.
The filing of an appeal request will not automatically stay
implementation of the Indian Preference Officer's decision, except
as to any monetary sanction. However, the Tribal Court may enter an
order delaying implementation of a decision when requested by a party,
when the appeal appears to be meritorious and when the appeal cannot
be processed to completion in time to prevent irreparable harm to
either the Indian preference business or the Purchasing Office. Before
entering any order which stays a Purchasing Office from completing
any procurement process, the Tribal Court shall give the Purchasing
Office an opportunity to present arguments as to how a stay will cause
irreparable harm or disruption to the business operations. If the
Purchasing Officer meets its burden of proof, any certified preference
business requesting a stay shall have the burden of demonstrating,
by clear and convincing evidence, that the granting of a stay will
not result in irreparable harm or disruption to important business
operations. In ruling on any request to stay a procurement decision,
the Tribal Court shall issue a written directive to the Purchasing
Office, with a copy to the certified preference business. Any interim
order, either to stay implementation of a procurement or to deny a
stay, shall not constitute a decision on the merits of the appeal,
but only serves to preserve the status quo until a decision on the
merits can be made.
The Tribal Court shall have jurisdiction to decide:
A. To uphold the decision of the Indian Preference Officer;
B. To modify a sanction imposed by the Indian Preference Officer; or
C. To reverse the decision and remand the matter back to the Indian
Preference Officer for proceedings consistent with the Court's
findings if the Tribal Court determines that the Indian Preference
Officer incorrectly interpreted or applied this chapter, the Constitution,
or that the decision of the Indian Preference Officer was clearly
erroneous or not supported by the record.