dmuir

Thank you for the research.

Thank you. Of course, 52.212-4 CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITION--COMMERCIAL ITEMS (MAR 2009) (ALTERNATE I - OCT 2008) (DEVIATION I - FEB 2007) is in our Schedules. I was checking the "Regulations Incorporated by Reference" section, but it is in the main body so I didn't see it. And wasn't thinking Commercial Items contained anything about excusable delays because I was thinking it was just a list of required flowdowns for subs. Thank you again! D

Unfortunately, no. One of our Task Orders does include 52.241-17 Govt delay of work, but it seems to be the exception. best regards, D

Wanted to add that The ONLY applicable clause I find is 52.242-15 Stop Work. But what if they don't officially issue a stop work?

I am reviewing our 899 and MOBIS Schedule contracts and if I am reading the "Regulations incorporated by reference" correctly, then NONE of the following clauses are incorporated at the Schedule level: 52.233-1 Disputes 52.249 14 Excusable Delays 52.243 Changes Am I missing something? If the govt shuts down due to lack of funding March 4, at the very least we may need a no-cost extension to complete the work (our work involves coordination with Federal employees who wouldn't be there if the govt shuts down). Any ideas for how to justify such a modification? Thank you.

Thanks. We hope we can avoid litigation by frank discussions with the Client. At this point we're looking for our best argument. We were hoping for a stronger position than if the referenced SOW is the full original, then we signed in error. We understand that it's the COTR's job to get as much as possible but with a large reduction in price, it just can't pass a cost/price analysis smell test. It's just not possible - we'd be guilty of underbidding... Anyway, thank you for your assistance & thank you for this site. happy holidays! D

The short story: We responded to an RFP with a proposal for approx. $100K. Client did not have budget, asked for lower price. We responded with another proposal with a new lower price and carefully explaining what parts of the SOW were not included in our new price. Task Order awarded for lower price. Now Client is expecting full SOW for reduced price. This is a services contract (environmental audits). Did we err by signing the Task Order without the TO referencing changes to the SOW? We thought we had stated clearly what was offered at the price. I have been looking for "order of precedence" clauses that might indicate if the conditions in the proposal might be automatically incorporated but have the clauses I've found so far are for Utilities or construction work... Is there another topic I should be searching under? (I looked at wifcon about "incorporating proposal" into award and apparently, it is frowned upon.) Thanks. D

But what is the justification for stating that the Basis of award excludes prime contractors?

Thank you! Now I know what I am looking for. Of course, in this case (because it is a sub) I am not privy to the proposal and can only advise in general terms. One more question if you would be so kind (because I have read the GSA Solicitation Documents before but am fairly certain they don't really address these issues): so what kind of language would a company's standard and non-standard commercial sales practices include in order to clarify that the basis of award should be the class of customers with the non-discounted rate? (I'm thinking of a case where the discounts are legitimate overhead mark-ups to a Federal Prime.) Because the rate is lower to the federal prime, that company would be a "most favored customer", right? Thank you again for your clarifications - I appreciate hearing that the terms are used somewhat loosely (so no wonder I'm confused) but shouldn't be.

Thank you. So would "most favored customer" be your largest customer in your "basis of award" category? Also, could "federal primes" be considered "commerical customers"? I have heard some people consider it commercial work even though the end client is Federal Govt although I didn't think it really was commercial... I appreciate your patience with my questions...Thank you!

Well, I don't actually know what their basis of award is. The concern over the rate to us affecting what their rates on their GSA Schedule was raised to our PM and I'm trying to figure out how to mitigate the situation. I'm unclear as to the significance of the term "Basis of Award" vs "Most Favored Customer". Would Basis of Award be commercial price list vs. past rates to most favored customer?? Would you be able to describe a scenario where work with us would affect their Basis of Award? (They've never worked for us before.)...

Are there fixed rules defining how the customer of a contract is determined, or does it all depend upon how a company defines "most favored customer" in their submission for establishing a GSA Schedule? 1) I interpret the customer of a Government Task Order under a GSA Schedule as the "issuing office", not GSA. And no, I can't find any particular regulation or defination to support this - it just seems common sense to me. 2) We are a contractor with a potential sub for work under a Task Order issued under a Government Agency BPA under our GSA Schedule. Who is the customer for the subcontractor? I would say my company, the contractor. (same concept as issuing office above). But if the subcontractor has defined the "Government Agency" (who issued the order and BPA) as their "Most Favored Customer" would their rates to a Prime Contractor trigger the automatic discount clause? I would think that would only apply if the subcontractor submitted work done through a Prime Contractor (could it be any Prime Contractor or just the company submitted?) as the basis for their rates to the Government Agency designated as their "most favored customer". Or would that be an error and if they submitted rates to a Prime Contractor only the Prime Contractor would be the "Most Favored Customer"? (And if it matters the potential subcontractor in question has submitted for a GSA Schedule but it has not yet been awarded & the sub is concerned that rates negotiated with us will affect their proposed rates to GSA). I don't think it will, but what to give the best advice possible to our potential sub.

I've just started researching document management software. We are a small government contractor with lots of short term work. In order to manage workflow, I think a system that allows for Project Managers to submit a request (for an NDA, Teaming Agreement, Consulting Agreement or Master Subcontract) and then allow us to track status (requested, drafted, fully executed) within the company would be more efficient than our current email based system. We have a sharepoint system that ideally this would integrate with. Thank you!

Yes, this is more like what happened. Thank you for your comments! It's still a pickle but a little clearer now!

My question is: we don't want to apply this other company's escalation on our prime contract, even though we know it is approved by GSA. Do we have to or do we have the right to negotiate a discount for this work?

We are a small company in a CTA with a larger company. We are the lead company. The larger company's Schedule 70 has automatic escalation on 2/14. Our option year (Jan to Dec) was issued to us by the client based on the 08 rates not the 09 rates for this company (suffice to say we had a pricing snafu that led to this situation). We are paying this company the 5% discount based on the higher rates (so even if the rates change on the "prime" level they won't change on their level). Can this company require us to charge the client the higher rates which are on their schedule? I've been tring to find the escalation clauses that apply but I think the issue is really whether we as a CTA partner can determine the discount that these positions are offered at to the govt and if this impedes their ability to negotiate the higher rates on some future activity... Thanks for your comments...D