Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy (h) if the procurement process is cancelled pursuant to Article 18 of this Policy, a statement to that effect and the grounds therefore, in accordance with Article 18 (2) of this Policy; (i) if, in procurement process involving methods of procurement other than bidding, those process did not result in a contract, a statement to that effect and the grounds thereof; and (j) the information required by Article 7, if a bid, proposal, offer or quotation was rejected pursuant to that provision. (2) Subject to Article 39 of this Policy, the portion of the records referred to in subparagraphs (a) to (c) of paragraph (1) of this article shall, on request, be made available to any person after a bid, proposal, offer or quotation, as the case may be, has been accepted or after procurement proceedings have been terminated without resulting in a procurement contract. (3) Subject to Article 39 of this Policy, the portion of the record referred to in subparagraphs (a) to (k), of paragraph (1) of this article shall, on request, be made available to economic operators that submitted bids, proposals, offers or quotations, or applied for prequalification, after a bid, proposal, offer or quotation has been accepted or procurement proceedings have been terminated without resulting in a procurement contract. Disclosure of the portion of the record referred to in subparagraphs (a) to (g), may be ordered at an earlier stage by a competent court. However, except when ordered to do so by a competent court, and subject to the conditions of such an order, the Procuring Entity shall not disclose: (a) information if its disclosure would be contrary to law, would impede law enforcement, would not be in the public interest, would prejudice legitimate commercial interests of the parties or would inhibit fair competition; and (b) information relating to the examination, evaluation and comparison of bids, proposals, offers or quotations, and bid, proposal, offer or quotation prices, other than the summary referred to in paragraph (1) (f). (4) The Procuring Entity shall not be liable to economic operators for damages owing solely to a failure to maintain a record of the procurement proceedings in accordance with the present article. CHAPTER II. METHODS OF PROCUREMENT AND CONDITIONS FOR USE Article 20. Methods of procurement and thresholds (1) The Procuring Entity shall engage in procurement of services, goods or works only by means of procurement methods pursuant to Articles 21, 22, 23, 24, 27 and 28 of this Policy. (2) Unless duly justified by specific circumstances, the competitive procurement methods described in the Articles 21 and 22 of this Policy shall be the preferred methods used for the award of the SADC Secretariat’s financed procurement contracts. (3) The thresholds for application of each method shall be defined in the Procurement Regulations. The Executive Secretary or the person/s with delegated powers may grant derogations to methods/thresholds. These derogations will be justified and for specific tenders or programmes. (4) The detailed description on how the methods are implemented shall be indicated in the Procurement Regulations. (5) Subject to the approval of the Executive Secretary, the application of these methods may be waived in the case of defence or security-related procurement to the extent that such procurement is determined to be of a sensitive nature, in accordance with the schedule of items eligible for such special treatment set forth in the procurement regulations. 17