VORCONS

Mr. Edwards, In my previous post, I stated, "I assume the contract is for a study and requires monthly reports and/or a final report." I stated this in hopes of causing DOECPA to expand upon what their organization's actual requirement is and to give DOECPA the benefit of the doubt. Is the requirement for a warm body sitting in a lab somewhere? For a SME? Or is there some type of desired result? I think you hit the nail on the head. I chose to post to this thread because I've had numerous debates with...we shall call them, "decision makers"...on this very issue. My arguments have led to both successful and unsuccessful outcomes in convincing the "decision makers" of my rationale. Although, the latter seems to prevail more often. The first sentence of DOECPA's original post states, "We have a requirement for one FTE each year for a base and several option years." If this statement is true, I don't even need to read the remainder of the post to conclude that FP LOE is not the appropriate contract type. Moreover, and the premise of my argument is, the agency doesn't have a requirement for any type of contract. They have a staffing need, rather it be on a temporary or permanent basis.

I wonder that myself. I assume the contract is for a study and requires monthly reports and/or a final report.

This is where I really have trouble understanding FPLOE contracts. I don't understand why the government defines FTEs as the level of effort. Do you think that is really best? To me, the level of effort should be defined as the sum of hours (sometimes broken down by specific labor categories) required to perform work described in the contract over a specified period of time. Of course, the lump sum can (and should) be negotiated with the contractor. Using that logic and knowing that the contractor must perform the LOE, why worry yourself with vacation time?