I am presently working on a team trying to create "Best Practices" for the subject vehicles. So, I am trying to get information from government agencies on their procedures and any problems they are having with these vehicles.

By Anon32 on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - 04:46 pm:

So, why are you "anonymous"? Can you please provide your e-mail address?

By formerfed on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 08:21 am:

Several other agencies are attempting to do the same thing so you're not alone. Actually, the need to do this is based on the notion that all these contractual vehicles are very complicated and people need guidance. In fact, they are very simple.

In terms of "best practices", I would say go read the ordering provisions of the contracts and follow them. For example, MOBIS and other GSA Schedules for professional type services say review the offerings of several vendors and submit an RFQ to at least three sources for pricing quotes. The selection decision is on a best value basis. This does not have to be complicated - if you select other than the lowest priced offer, document what the selected vendor is proving that others don't and why it's worth the extra money. The other Schedules for products contain similar language for capabilities, features, etc. that one product has that the other vendors don't provide.

In terms of GWAS and other type contracts, follow the same process. Get a hold of the ordering instructions and do what they say. Most of these are avilable on the web.

I would suggest obtaining samples from someone that followed proper procedures and just distribute them.

By Anonymous8 on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 02:13 pm:

Although they offer many advantages, I do not believe they are simple to use for the following reasons:

1) Extremely labor intensive to obtain schedules so that you can make a rational cut on which three schedule holders to send RFQs to;

2) Extremely difficult to obtain the underlying "contract" terms and conditions. To the best of my knowledge, the guidance is to just look up the solicitation, which is "evergreen". No way to know if the negotiation may have changed any of the RFP t/c.

2) Some schedules appear to be commercial, as the solicitations include Part 12 clauses and state they are commercial in nature. Look at the PES solicitation (which I assume becomes the contract when awarded) as an example; in addition to the Part 12 clauses, it also includes many many clauses from throughout the FAR; including inspection of services and time and material type clauses. How do we reconcile non-FFP order within a Part 12 contract. Is use of t/m and L/H orders consistent with Part 12 prescription.

3) You may find that only one schedule holder offers the service you need; procedures require that you go out for three quotes. How does one handle sole source, when it is not permissable under the schedules.

By the way: Best practice suggested to me by a contractor: make sure you note the name of the incumbent (if there is one) in your RFQ.

Other thought - perhaps a new thread?

With PL107-107 - once implemented, over $100K we will need to basically synopsize? requirements to be filled under GSA and give fair opportunity to schedules holders. This may make use of schedules much less attractive.

By Eric B. Ottinger on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 02:55 pm:

Formerfed,

Take a look at P. L. 107-107

SEC. 803. COMPETITION REQUIREMENT FOR PURCHASE OF SERVICES PURSUANT TO MULTIPLE AWARD CONTRACTS.

"(4) A purchase may not be made pursuant to a notice that is provided to fewer than all contractors under paragraph (3) unless--
(A) offers were received from at least three qualified contractors; or
(B) a contracting officer of the Department of Defense determines in writing that no additional qualified contractors were able to be identified despite reasonable efforts to do so."


I give our legislators high marks for cunning.

Personal Opinion: For truly commercial services (e.g. routine Information Technology services) it will never be difficult to obtain at least three offers.

For highly specialized, “boutique” services, given the propensity of contracting offices to consistently award these contracts to the incumbents, the challenger is going to figure out that he/she has better odds refusing to bid, thus forcing the PCO to go with a standard Part 15 competition.

In many cases it might not be that easy to get the required three offers, particularly when there is a well-entrenched incumbent.

This should be interesting.

(Many thanks and kudo's to my friend B, who tipped me off to this interesting new wrinkle.)

Eric

By formerfed on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 03:21 pm:

Eric,

Your personal opinion is right on the mark. Any smart person/program should craft requirements so that multiple responses are received. Even on a very large dollar value requirement, it's nearly painless to get price qoutes using a multi-tiered approach. First obtain capability statements (also easy since GSA includes phone numbers and eamil addresses on the web schedule site), evlaute responses to narrow the group down, issue a more detailed SOW/SOO, use oral presentations, and obtaina price quote from at least three sources. The selection is based on best value, so it's fast and easy. A friend of mine did a significant IT acqusisition using this in 90 days.

By mgrissom on Thursday, January 17, 2002 - 05:12 pm:

Anon32, here is my email address. mgrissom@infi.net. This is the first time I have been back to see the responses. Forgive the delay.

By Anonymous8 on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 08:13 am:

So Eric,

Do you interpret this to mean that we go out as per before (business as usual) and only need to provide notice if we see (after the fact) that we did not get the three quotes? I did not catch that loophole.

Your cite:
"(4) A purchase may not be made pursuant to a notice that is provided to fewer than all contractors under paragraph (3) unless--
(A) offers were received from at least three qualified contractors; or

By Eric Ottinger on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 09:04 am:

Anon8,

If you are saying that (4)(B) is going to need a little interpretation, I think you are right.

As I read it, if a contracting officer doesn't get the required 3 quotes at the first try, he is required to keep working through the GSA list until he gets three quotes or can make a convincing case that he will never get the three quotes.
The list is long. But geographically remote contractors (who know that their quotes are just going to be used to beef up the file) may be reluctant to quote. This could be a tedious exercise.

Eric

By Eric Ottinger on Friday, January 18, 2002 - 10:21 am:

Anon8 and All,

Bob has this posted. It would probably be a good idea to read the entire Section.

http://www.wifcon.com/dod803.htm

Eric