Four companies have responded to your RFP. Each proposal has a different technical solution to your problem and each proposal states that the information in the proposal is company-proprietary knowledge and not to be shared with anyone. After evaluation of the proposals, you discover that the best technical approach is from the highest bidder. You are unhappy about this. You decide to show the proposal from the highest bidder to the lowest bidder to see if the lowest bidder can provide the same technical solution but at a lower cost. This situation is:
A. Acceptable since once the proposals are submitted to your company, you have unlimited access to the intellectual property in the proposals
B. Acceptable since all companies do this
C. Acceptable as long as you inform the highest bidder that you are showing their proposal to the lowest bidder
D. Unacceptable and is a violation of the Code of Professional Conduct