duke38

Thanks for your opinions

Hello all 

I am putting together a solicitation for commodities and I have a situation i would like to clarify first. The situation is the program office initially submitted a PR for a quantity of two but has informed me since that they will be ordering an addition 40 in the near future. I initially told them we could continue forward with the initial 2 then put the additional 40 on the same solicitation as an optional quantity. However FAR 17.207 states:

Quote

 

Solicitations that require the offering of an option at prices no higher than those for the initial requirement shall --

(2) Limit option quantities for additional supplies to not more than 50 percent of the initial quantity of the same contract line item. In unusual circumstances, an authorized person at a level above the contracting officer may approve a greater percentage of quantity.

 

My questions is since we are not requiring the vendor to offer us a option "prices no higher than those for the initial requirement" can I move forward with having the optional quantity of 40 in this solicitation, am I interpreting this correctly? 

5 minutes ago, joel hoffman said:

Seems like there could be a couple of issues here. Bonafide needs rule for supplies ordered in one year to be used in the next FY. Assuming that an exception applies, are the commodities on the Ability One Procurement List?

Assuming yes, there are procedures under FAR 8.to obtain waivers or exceptions to be able to purchase the commodities  from other commercial sources. Do you have to cancel the order from the vendor or can the vendor obtain the commodities elsewhere? 

 

I don't want to cancel the order because i'm afraid i will lose the funding once I deob the order. The vendor can procure from other sources but I'm thinking Ability One may have an issue with the vendor procuring outside of Ability One when this contract was set-aside for Ability One products. If there is an exception in the FAR I can reference then I will move forward with allowing the vendor to procure from other sources.

Greetings I have a situation where I awarded a contract under FAR Part 8 Ability One contractor for commodities on September 31st with expiring funds meaning the funds needed to be obligated by 31 September. The winning vendor just informed me that they cannot procure those items through Ability One, my issue is if I cancel this contract then I will lose all the funding because this funding has expired, is there any other options I have to use so I do not lose this funding? Anyone been in this situation before? I know the FAR allows for an extension of funds when a protest is received but what if the vendor cannot perform after award, is there any provisions that will allow me to reuse this expired funding?

Greetings everyone

I'm putting together some realistic training to provide to a new program who will be doing small purchases from 3k to 7 mil and I want to provide some real world practical exercises that will help give them a realistic view on where and how to begin the procurement process. I have a few ideas i've used in the past but I wanted to reach out to some of you to incorporate some new activities that some of you have used and would like to share. I have about 3 hours total over 2 days to provide this training. The audience has no prior acquisition experience so basic interactive exercises would be most desired. Thanks in advance for any of your suggestions.

Does anyone out there have experience with Direct hiring authority for 1102s? My agency wants to use this to some higly qualified candidates but my HR is pushing back stating do we meet the need as outlined by OPM. I sent them the GW004 which states 1102s qualify as a shortage but they never done this before and cannot wrap their head around allowing us to use this authority. Does anyone out there have any suggestions on how i can move this forward? I really want to move forward before we loose these potential employees.

Wow it just seems a bit unethical being that in the U.S. only GSA can provide office space to Government emloyees. I actually seen government employees get removed from a contractor facility who was providing office space and CO had to answer to the IG. I'm not sure if the same applies overseas are not. I guess we would have to make sure we identify the type of vehicle and office equipment to the vendor before they purchase it because i can see where this could possibly get out of hand. This whole thing came about because the embassy does not have enough office space to support this individual or they would be working out of there instead.

Greetings all

I have a issue I am trying to reslove with my program office and i need to know where i can find regulations that addresses this situation. The issue is we awarded a facilities contract in a remote location overseas and the PO wants a Goverment employee to get support from the vendor which includes a vehicle to use to and from work, office space, and computers. I know this sounds crazy but the PO is adamant that this is possible because they did something similar in Iraqi years before. I need something in writing from the FAR or any regulation i can quote so I can provide them a definitive answer. Thanks in advance for your help. 

Thanks this was very helpful!

Greetings everyone,

I just recieved a contract from one of my program offices that was being worked by a CO that is no longer in the organization. This contract expired 2 months ago, however the last deliverable was never complete because of a Government delay. I have email traffic from the CO to the vendor informing them that this contract will be extended however it never did get extended and we still want the deliverable once the Government has complteted their research within the next month. What are my options at this point, can we still continue with the last deliverable as if the contract is still valid or do i have to some how breath life back into this expired contract? Any direction would be greatly appreciated

The solicitation was sey aside for a particular group and the vendor was not in that group but they submitted a bid anyway and told the CS they would apply for that group which never happened but the CS did not follow up before making the award and ended up awarding to this vendor. Needless to say it was protested and OSBDU reccommended terminating the contract.

Greetings I have a relative short questions that i am getting mixed answers for. The question is can the Government terminate a vendor for cause if the vendor did not meet the socio-economic category outlined in the solicitation? Granted the CO overlooked the vendors Socio economic category when they made the award. Thoughts or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Is the agency-level protest timely? See FAR 33.103( e ).

Are you required to suspend performance of the awarded order? See FAR 33.103( f )( 3 ).

You don't have to wait for 35 days to issue your decision (see FAR 33.103( g )) -- you can issue your decision tomorrow if your agency procedures allow you to. Your decision should be to deny the protest because the schedule contractor does not show an exclusion in SAM, and it is a well-established principle that once an offeror has been determined to be responsible and is awarded a schedule contract, there is no requirement that an agency conduct an additional responsibility determination when issuing an order under the contract, since a responsibility determination was already made at the time of award of the underlying schedule contract. I am assuming the protester provided no evidence of the successful awardee's ineligibility.

When you write your decision, please use correct terminology. I think you awarded an order, not a contract. If you did award a contract, then my paragraph above does not apply. Did you award an order or a contract?

Yes you are correct I awarded an order and thanks for answering my question. I was trying to find out if I needed to determine responsibility on a GSA scheduled contractor after they were already determined to be responsible on their base contract.

Greetings,

I recently awarded a contract for commodities to a GSA scheduled small business vendor for vehicles off their schedule. The award was for 2 mil and awarded on 30 September 2015. There were 4 vendors who submitted a proposal and the award went to the LPTA vendor. There was no debriefing as this is not required when using a mandatory source of supply under FAR part 8, however today a I received an email for a agency protest from one of the unsuccessful offerors stating that the winning bidder cannot be awarded a federal contract because they were recently fined and penalized by a federal agency for not having a required license to sell to certain entities. Before I awarded this contract I checked and filed the System for Award Management report that stated this vendor was not on any debarred list or owed any delinquent taxes to the federal Government. The allegations may or may not be true but if this vendor was considered barred or banned from a Government contract then wouldn't they lose their GSA contract therefore we would not be able to make an award to them in the first place. Also is this unsuccessful offeror protest even valid since this is a FAR Part 8 contract?

I am confused by this - since when can the military award armored personnel carriers (APCs) from a GSA schedule?

Where did you get military from?

Duke, just to be clear, you said you were acquiring the vehicles from a GSA schedule holder, but you did not say you were acquiring them off a schedule. Can you clarify this point and if you are acquiring them off a schedule, what schedule?

Yes this is off their GSA schedule. Schedule 84 426 5B

Personnel Carriers

Greetings, I awarded a FFP contract for armored vehicles under a LPTA RFQ to a GSA schedule holder. A week after the award the vendor is asking for a Bi-lateral modification to add FAR clause 52.232-30 to the contract to allow them to receive progress payments. Is this an unusual request for a vehicle manufacturer and if I do allow them installment payments what and how would I be able to determine if a payment is warranted since we will not get these vehicles until they are complete?

To make it simple i ordered 2 types of vehicles, one vehicle was on their GSA schedule and the other was not. Since one of the vehicles was not on their schedule but they supplied me with an open market price for that vehicle am i required now to reopen this RFQ on FBO?

The answer is no. You issued a solicitation to GSA schedule contractors for schedule items. You did not solicit quotes for open market items. Therefore, you cannot make an award for the open market item.

But you do not have to re-solicit just because you received a quote for something that you did not ask for. How did that idea ever enter your head?

Is there anything in your RFQ that would prevent you from splitting the award, buying one vehicle from one quoter and the other from another?

I just automatically assumed i had to go open market as that's how this agency normally reacts to this particular situation. I did not put any language in my solicitation that discussed splitting this requirement, I have never seen such a thing done in the past. Would this be a viable option? Will i have to do a SOW to attach with each contract?

Can you just issue an order to the next vendor that provided a complaint GSA quote? If you want this to award quickly and your RFQ supports, it may be the way to go.

We did not list this as a factor in the solicitation so i'm not sure it would be wise to eliminate the lowest price just for convenience. If there is a cheaper way to acquire these supplies outside of GSA i am all for it. I have no problem listing it on FBO I am just trying to get a definitive answer.

duke38:

What the heck are you asking about? Are you asking about open market "pricing" or open market purchases of items?

I know what open market purchases of items means. That's what is discussed in FAR 8.402(f). But you asked about "Open Market pricing" and a determination of fairness and reasonableness. I don't know what open market pricing means.

Does the quote include an item that is not on schedule? If so, you have more to be concerned about than a determination of fairness and reasonableness.

To make it simple i ordered 2 types of vehicles, one vehicle was on their GSA schedule and the other was not. Since one of the vehicles was not on their schedule but they supplied me with an open market price for that vehicle am i required now to reopen this RFQ on FBO?

Some say meet only one threshold and some state i must meet all, very confusing even legal has different opinions.

I found this in the FAR:

In accordance with FAR 8.402(f), for administrative convenience, an ordering activity Contracting Officer may add items not on the GSA Schedule contract – e.g., open market items – to a GSA Schedule BPA or an individual task or delivery order only if:

• All applicable acquisition regulations pertaining to the purchase of the items not on the Schedule contract have been followed (e.g., publicizing (FAR Part 5), competition requirements (FAR Part 6), acquisition of commercial items (FAR Part 12), contracting methods (FAR Parts 13, 14, and 15), and small business programs (FAR Part 19)
• The ordering activity Contracting Officer has determined the prices for the items not on the Schedule contract are fair and reasonable
• The items are clearly labeled on the order as items not on the Schedule contract
• All clauses applicable to items not on the Schedule contract are included in the order
• The ordering Contracting Officer has determined that the items are within the scope of the Schedule contract

It is important to recognize that GSA has only negotiated prices or determined prices to be fair and reasonable for those supplies and services that are awarded to Schedule contracts.Therefore, the ordering activity must comply with the requirements for full and open competition, by following all applicable acquisition regulations and determining price reasonableness for open market items.

Now do I have to meet all of those thresholds or can i just meet one such determining the price to be fair and reasonable.

Greetings, I am having a hard time trying to find a answer to a simple question. My dilema is I released a LPTA RFQ on GSA for 2 types of vehicles along with training. The problem is the vendor with the lowest quote submitted a proposal with Open Market pricing for one of the vehicles and the training now i unsure if i can award to this vendor or do i need to publish this RFQ on the open market ie FBO. Any answers would be welcomed.

Thanks all this answers my question.