civ_1102

Retreadfed, while what you typed is true, FAR 16.301-3 is crystal clear in requiring that, "The contractor?s accounting system is adequate for determining costs applicable to the contract." I have worked at agencies (civilian) where cost contracts were awarded without any effort to ascertain whether or not an adequate accounting system exists (I would not have been surprised if those CO's did not even know that this requirement exists). In fact, every single contract type other than firm-fixed-price requires that the contracting officer consider the adequacy of a contractor's accounting system prior to awarding the contract (see FAR 16.104 (h)).

I could not agree with your more, Vern. I currently provide acquisition support to a major civilian agency and it is common practice here, in fact it is even expected, that the program office write the majority of the acquisition plan. I think it's a very strange practice. As my first supervisor told me, the acquisition plan tells the story of the procurement. Delegating the responsibility to write the acquisition plan to the program side, to me, is a complete abdication of one of the most significant pre-award duties of the contracting officer.

-That, when conducting discussions, you must have the same number of rounds of questions for each offeror -That you must/should incorporate an offeror's technical proposal into the contract -That the CON/DAWIA sequence prepares you to be a Contracting Officer (sorry-had to put a little snark in there)

elgueromeromero, first, to clarify, are you actually buying services or are you buying R&D? You mentioned that you are using R&D money. So if you are actually buying services, what's the connection to the type of appropriation? I would suspect that you work an an R&D activity, and thus have permission to use R&D funds for other purposes.