(a) The procurement officer shall open proposals so as to avoid disclosure of contents to competing offerors before notice of intent to award a contract is issued. A register of proposals containing the name and address of each offeror shall be prepared in accordance with regulations adopted by the commissioner. The register and the proposals are open for public inspection after the notice of intent to award a contract is issued under AS 36.30.365. To the extent that the offeror designates and the procurement officer concurs, trade secrets and other proprietary data contained in the proposal documents are confidential.
(b) If a solicitation is cancelled under AS 36.30.350 after proposals are received but before a notice of intent to award a contract has been issued under AS 36.30.365, a protest of the solicitation or of the cancellation of the solicitation has not been filed by an interested party under AS 36.30.560, and the time specified in AS 36.30.565(a) for filing such a protest has expired, the procurement officer may return a proposal to the offeror that made the proposal. The procurement officer shall keep a list of returned proposals in the file for the solicitation.