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Should We Criticize GSA?

In a recent blog post, Steve Kelman took issue with GSA for the way they intend to evaluate past performance under the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) procurement (see “GSA is Saying What?"). Specifically, the evaluation scheme in the draft request for proposals (RFP) shows that GSA intends to weigh past performance with federal customers more heavily than past performance with nonfederal customers (the draft RFP is available for viewing on FedBizOpps). Kelman says tha

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

13 Reasons Why SAP is Simpler

“How do you do simplified acquisition?” is a common question I hear from acquisition personnel that are more familiar with using FAR part 15 procedures to solicit offers and award contracts. The question presupposes that there is a regulated set of procedures that one must follow—similar to what is prescribed in FAR part 15, agency FAR supplements to FAR part 15, agency guidebooks on source selection, and the decisions of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Court of Federal Claims (CO

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

The Incredible Shrinking P

I read a lot of rules—proposed rules, interim rules, final rules, second proposed rules, second interim rules, etc. In fact, I decided a year or so ago that I would read all new rules in the Federal Register that affect the FAR or DFARS (I’m only a few rules behind as of this writing). In my reading, I noticed a strange phenomenon that went unexplained in the Federal Register notices—the letters “P” and “S” were getting smaller. That is, citations to FAR parts and subparts were being changed

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Small Business Order of Priority Table (HOLD THE PRESS!)

WARNING: OMB issued a memorandum on July 10 directing executive agencies to temporarily disregard the two GAO decisions discussed below until a full review can be conducted. Until such a review is conducted, do not use the table. Depending on your point of view, two recent GAO decisions have either clarified or muddied our understanding of the rules pertaining to the order of priority for small business programs. In International Program Group, Inc., B-400278; B-400308, September 19, 2008, t

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Sometimes Bigger is Better

An interesting aspect of the new socioeconomic parity rules issued in Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-50 (see 76 FR 14566) is that we now have some scenarios where a contractor is better off not being a small business concern. The Discussion and Analysis section of the Federal Register notice contains the following statement: This policy is implemented at the new FAR 19.203( c ). Further, the new FAR 19.203(d) states the following: Thus, for acquisitions over the simplified acqui

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

An Easily Misunderstood Decision

In B&B Medical Services, Inc.; Rotech Healthcare, Inc.; B-404241, B-404241.2, (January 19, 2011), the Comptroller General held that the statutory nonmanufacturer rule does not apply to procurements set aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small business concerns. The decision contains the following analysis: The analysis is technically correct?the statutory nonmanufacturer rule does not apply to HUBZone set-asides. Reading this analysis, one may conclude that,

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Plain Language Writing Contest

I invite you to participate in a plain language writing contest. To participate, re-write the passage below in plain language and post your entry in the comments section below. Here is the passage: You may submit more than one entry. I will score your entry for readability using the Dale-Chall Readability Formula.  Your entry must communicate the essential information in the passage to be acceptable. The acceptable entry with the lowest adjusted readability score will be the winner.

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Inconsistent Decisions?

In TYBRIN Corporation, B-298364.6; B-298364.7, March 13,2007, the GAO held that an offeror's cost estimate that indicated that it would not perform 51% of the contract work on a small business set-aside rendered the offer unacceptable, even though the offeror did not explicitly take exception to the solicitation's limitation on subcontracting clause (FAR 52.219-14) and the SBA granted the offeror a certificate of competency. The GAO reasoned as follows: As a result, the Air Force reopened

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

COs: Follow OMB?s Guidance at Your Peril

There has been a considerable amount of controversy over the last year or so in the area of small business programs. In International Program Group, Inc., (B?400278, B?400308, 19 September 2008) the Government Accountability Office (GAO) held that HUBZone set-asides took priority over service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) set-asides and SDVOSB sole source acquisitions. This was unsurprising given the clear language in the FAR. In Mission Critical Solutions (B?401057, 4 May 2009)

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Are Government Personnel Much Different Than Contractor Personnel?

This morning I read two different threads in the Wifcon forum. In the first thread, the discussion centered on late Government payments. (See “Significant Delays in voucher review/approval”). Some of the participants shared stories of how the Government does not consistently respect contractual payment due dates. Because some contractors are reluctant to enforce their rights under the payment clauses of their contracts, the Government continues to take advantage of them. One poster put it t

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Section 1331 Authorities: A Primer

Section 1331 of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111-240) recognizes the significant opportunities that exist to increase small business participation on multiple award contracts and the ability of set-asides— the most powerful small business contracting tool—to unlock these opportunities. Under Section 1331, Federal agencies may: (1) set aside part or parts of multiple award contracts for small business; (2) reserve one or more awards for small businesses on multiple award contracts

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Has Your Office Been Infiltrated?

In January 1944, the Office of Strategic Services, a wartime intelligence agency and predecessor to the modern Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), issued Strategic Services Field Manual No.3 (Simple Sabotage Field Manual) to its agents to aid the Allied war effort in Europe. The purpose of the classified document was to explain the technique of simple sabotage, outline its possible effects, and present suggestions for inciting and executing it. It introduced the concept of simple sabotage as foll

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Magnetic Properties of Metals with Partially Filled 4f Electron Subshells

Did you ever wonder about the type of debate that goes on before an acquisition rule becomes final and is incorporated into the Federal Acquisition Regulation System? This information can be found in the Background section of the final rule when it appears in the Federal Register. I make a point of reading this section whenever a new rule comes out because it tells the story behind the rule?who the rule is going to affect, who is happy about the rule, who is upset about the rule, who thinks it s

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Myth-Information: Exchanges with Offerors

First, I'd like to thank everyone that contributed to my thread seeking myth-information in federal contracting. I culled another 20 pieces to add to the seven that I was able to come up with. If you come across any or are able to think of any more, please add to the thread or send me a message. Second, I'd like to comment on something that Retreadfed wrote in the aforementioned thread: While I hadn't thought about it, I like the distinction that Retreadfed made. Myth-information exis

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Acquisition Mentoring Program Survey

A former student of mine is part of a team conducting a survey to gauge interest in a Mentoring program for Acquisition. If you work in federal acquisition and work for a federal agency (including DoD), please take a few minutes to complete the survey. The more junior you are, the better. From the team:  

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Plain Language Writing Contest--Winners

I've chosen the winners of the Plain Language writing contest. The following entry from @Jamaal Valentine was the acceptable entry with the best readability score: The most humorous entry came from @apsofacto: There were some others I really liked that didn't win. If we slightly change @bentley78's entry, we get: Thank you all for participating!

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Problem of the Day--Pricing Contingencies

Assume that you are pricing a firm-fixed-price contract using cost analysis. The prospective contractor has included a contingency of $100,000 in its cost proposal of the type described at FAR 31.205-7(c)(1): There is a 90% chance that this contingency will occur. If it occurs, there's a 100% chance it will cost $100,000. The prospective contractor can take Precaution A, which will cost $50,000. If the contingency occurs, Precaution A would reduce the chance of the contingency costin

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Myth-Information: Proposal Rating

Myth-Information: When discussing the evaluation of competitive proposals with my students, I make a point of asking the following two questions (in order): 1. Are agencies required to evaluate proposals? 2. Are agencies required to rate proposals? Usually, students respond affirmatively to question #1 and are able to support their answers by citing FAR 15.305(a), which states "An agency shall evaluate competitive proposals and then assess their relative qualities solely on the facto

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

GAO Issues Apology to DoD

In a remarkable statement issued today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) apologized to the Department of Defense for what it called "decades of unwarranted and unsubstantiated criticism." The admission came in the wake of the release of a March 2009 GAO report titled Defense Acquisitions: Assessments of Selected Weapon Programs that claims that for 2008 programs, research and development costs are now 42 percent higher than originally estimated and the average delay in delivering init

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Problem of the Day--Pricing Delivery Incentives

Assume you are soliciting quotes for an item of supply. Suppliers A, B, and C each sell the item for about $100/unit. However, the probability of late delivery is different for each supplier. Supplier A has a 31% chance of delivering late, Supplier B has a 21% chance of delivering late, and Supplier C has a 4% chance of delivering late. There’s a 100% chance that all suppliers will deliver no later than one week after the delivery date and any damages due to late delivery will be negligible.

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Myth-information in Federal Contracting

"You can't be distracted by the noise of misinformation." -James Daly In my career as a contracting professional and now an educator, I have come to appreciate the growing body of misinformation in Federal contracting. Contracting misinformation is pervasive. You can see it in the popular press, periodicals dedicated to the contracting profession, in posts at the Wifcon forum, internal policy memoranda at a Government agency, etc. As I'm writing this, somewhere a senior contracting profes

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

Problem of the Day--Withdrawal of Proposals

Scenario: Acme Corporation responds to two different RFPs issued by the Government. RFP 1 is for commercial items and contains the untailored version FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors--Commercial Items. Acme responds to RFP 1 with Proposal 1. RFP 2 is for noncommercial items and contains FAR 52.215-1, Instructions to Offerors--Competitive Acquisition. Acme responds to RFP 2 with Proposal 2. The deadline for submission of the proposals for both RFPs is June 30. Both of Acme's proposals were

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield

The Acquivore Podcast

1.000 Scope The purpose of this post is to promote The Acquivore Podcast. 1.001 Definitions As used in this post— Acquivore means an animal whose mental diet consists chiefly of Federal acquisition. The term includes acquiholics, acquiphiles, acquinauts, acquidemics, and acquimaniacs. The Acquivore Podcast means a video podcast dedicated to learning about, discussing, and thinking about Federal acquisition. 1.002 Applicability This post applies to all acquivore

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield in Notice

Acquivore Podcast, Episode 2 - Prescribing "Statement of Work Language": An Evasion of DoD Clause Control Policy?

DoD implemented a Clause Control Policy in 2015 that would require the same degree of transparency in the development and use of "local clauses" by the military departments and defense agencies as FAR and DFARS clauses (see PGI Case 2015-P003 and attached). Specifically, local clauses would be subject to publication for comment in the Federal Register and codified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). However, not a single local clause has been incorporated in the CFR since the new policy wa

Don Mansfield

Don Mansfield in Notice

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