hallowed

I’ve contacted a specialist from aptac. Said she will work on my issue after getting back from vacation. Thanks to everyone who shared info and thoughts here. Learned lots of new stuff. I’m grateful..

That’s exactly what i thought. Never expected to see a clause in the contract with another one voiding it. Where’s the logic here? IMHO, the only condition that may allow far 52.219-6 and dfars 252.225-7002 exist in the same contract would be an additional phrase or clause like: “when these two clauses are cited in the same contract, qualfying country end products will be treated as domestic end products”. Otherwise nonfunctional clause should be removed. You can’t put a clause in a contract and then tell the contractor to ignore it. Everything must be clear enough to allow precise interpretation by everyone. Quoting a domestic end product and then supplying a foreign one is a false claim/fraud. But if you’re exposing the origin of your products as foreign, where would you be expected to get them from?

This is great news. The only thing left is make them unlock my account.. Thank you Joel.🙏

DLA master solicitation states as: quoting other than a domestic end product on an unrestricted solicitation doesn’t make an offer ineligible for the award. Do i have the opportunity to compete for unrestricted solicitations as a small business and offer QC products? If so, i’ll follow that way because set asides seem to be the problem here.

Thank you Joel. I’ll find someone a.s.a.p

@Don Mansfield What does unrestricted solicitation mean? Does it indentify the ones other than set asides? Couldn’t find any info..

Thank you all for your help and patience.. I really appreciate it.

As i’ve mentioned before i haven’t received a written acceptance request with cancellation notice. Just an SF30 form signed by the officer noticing that my purchase orders are cancelled and the award is decreased to zero. Seems like an inadequate document. Do i have any rights arise from this other than the regular dispute process?

Still seems so meaningless as to why an inapplicable clause exists in a contract. I’ve received 8 awards in total. All of them must have been granted after evaluating the offer i guess, including the last two. I don’t know what made the difference to preclude me until the last ones. Would it take 6 awards to recognize that my company is not legitimate? If QC products were the problem they should have warned me before. I’ve never changed the way i quoted. They must have seen the origin of my products before. Seems like an unfair decision to me.

So when you say i have to comply with far 52.219-6, you are leaving both dfars 252.225-7001 and 252.225-7002 written in the contract useless/void. And that’s damaging the integrity of the contract. What’s the purpose of putting a clause in a SMALL BUSINESS ONLY contract, if participants aren’t allowed to benefit from it or another clause already makes it void/ineffective. Don’t you think it’s meaningless?

Don, here is what confuses me. If a solicitation is a small business set aside, it means no entity other than a small business may participate. And if you put dfars 252.225-7001 and 252.225-7002 into a contract it means that these clauses apply to participating entities which will obviously be small businesses only. Full meaning: participating small businesses may use a qc source as subcontractor. This creates a different situation than what you’ve mentioned. About the cancellation notice: no it didn’t request anything. Just cancellation based on far 13.302-4(b). No other info. I’ve contacted the issuing office stating that i’m not accepting the cancellation and demanded for compensation of my loss. Waiting for their reply. If i get a negative feedback i’ll hire someone competent.

Thanks for your reply. I’ve read about disputes and terminations. I’ve contacted the related departments to compensate my loss. I’ll wait and see.

Don thank you for your reply. I’ve been following your posts for a long time and i was curious about your comment. Yes they were set aside for small business but contract clauses include qualifying country sources as subcontractors and BAA and BOP program. If qualifying country products are not allowed then why there’s a clause in the contract? And why there’s even an QCP option to specify on the online quote form? If this clause exists in the contract doesn’t it mean that you can benefit from it? Also i guess i should benefit from BAA and BOP program too, which states: if the contractor certified in its offer that it will deliver a qcp, the contractor shall deliver a qcp or, at the contractor’s option, a domestic product. And as far as i know, with the final rule effective by June 30, 2016 the SBA eliminated the nonmanufacturer rule for acquisitions between $3500 and $150,000 which simply means small businesses may supply from large businesses and/or non domestic products. If there weren’t any aforementioned clauses in the contract i would have understood the reason to be precluded. But under these conditions i don’t get it. This is what i understand from all these clauses. I don’t know maybe you’re right. Hiring a professional will be my best choice i guess.

Thank you Joel. I appreciate your interest with my situation. Not only my awards are cancelled but also my company is precluded from competing by locking my dibbs account. I told them everything i mentioned here but nobody replied me and never had a word about laws and clauses. I’m not only trying to get my contracts back but also make them unlock my account to keep on competing. Unfortunately i don’t have any chance to return the raw material. It’s kind of a rare type of alloy and i had a hard time finding it. I paid for it in cash and it’s now sitting in the warehouse. I wrote an email to DLA today and told them that the decision is inconsistent with dfars laws. What i performed was within the contract clauses. And asked them to re-review the contract clauses in detail and reconsider the decision. DLA validation lead told me that the office of small business programs is responsible for restriction of my account because according to them my company couldn’t pass the validation due to the manufacturer’s location. My account will be unlocked if the office of SBP will confirm the validation and contact the dla validation team regarding access to my account. I wrote them about the issue with all info i’ve mentioned above. Waiting for replies from both offices. Hope they understand the mistake and allow me compete for contracts again. If i receive a negative feedback i’ll take your advice and hire a competent counsel. That will be my last and only chance left. ji20874 and Joel.. Thank you very much for your help. I really appreciate your efforts. It means so much to me and changed the whole story on my behalf. Merry Christmas 🙂

Yes i always identify the qualifying country of manufacture in my proposals. I never tend to do anything against the law. And yes the clauses i referred exist in my cancelled contracts and even in other ones i've bid for.

Thanks for your reply. I checked my contracts again. Since i'm bidding for DLA contracts below $150,000 only, none of them contain the FAR rules you mentioned. They all have "DFARS 252.225-7001, BUY AMERICAN AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS PROGRAM APPLIES TO ALL QUOTES ABOVE THE MICRO-PURCHASE THRESHOLD written. Other clauses written at the bottom of the contract are: 252.225-7001 BUY AMERICAN AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS PROGRAM—BASIC (DEC 2016) DFARS 252.225-7001 BUY AMERICAN AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS PROGRAM—BASIC (DEC 2016), ALT I (DEC 2016) DFARS 252.225-7002 QUALIFYING COUNTRY SOURCES AS SUBCONTRACTORS (DEC 2016) DFARS Doesn't this contract and its clauses justify me? Am i getting it wrong?

One last question. As far as i know taa defines designated countries which are different from qualifying countries. Qualifying countries are specific to defense contracts. They have privilages within DLA solicitations including small business set asides. Does this change anything?

Hello everybody. I’m having struggle clearing an issue. Any help would be appreciated. I’m a non-US guy residing legally in Florida. On March 2018 i established a single owner LLC to compete for DLA contracts on dibbs. I’ve got duns and cage for my company and registered on SAM as required without any trouble. Then i made an agreement with an advanced manufacturing facility located overseas in a qualifying country to manufacture my orders. I exclusively bid for DLA contracts below $150,000. After a few unsuccessful bids, i’ve been awarded two contracts by DLA Troop Support. One of them was worth $126,500 (manual evaluation) and the other was $3600 (automated). I purchased the raw material paying thousands of dollars in cash. Just before starting the manufacturing process, my dibbs account has been locked for validation purposes and my two contracts have been cancelled with reason FAR 13.302-4(b). I’ve sent all documentation in full required for validation check including the address and photos of the manufacturing facility. I paused the work at that period of time. After waiting for a month i received an email stating that my company is being precluded from bidding on dibbs just because i manufacture the items not in the USA but in a qualifying country. Then i prepared and sent an email including clauses about exceptions towards qualifying country products and contracting with qualifying country sources. I know that small businesses should supply domestic end products or buy from other small businesses within the USA. But also according to DFARS 225.872-1 and 252.225.7000 (b) (2) qualfying country end products are treated as domestic products because QC end products are exempt from BAA and balance of payments program. Not to mention dfars 252.225.7002 (b) stating that qualifying country sources or US sources cannot be precluded from competing for subcontracts. If offering QC end products is a valid reason to preclude a company from bidding on dibbs, then why is there a QC products option on bidding page? I’m having a hard time understanding this. Even after 3 or 4 emails, nobody answered my questions. I couldn’t reach anybody to tell my concerns clearly. I’m still waiting with raw material worth thousands of dollars. I asked the validation team and dla small business office to reconsider my company’s validation status based on rules and clauses i’ve mentioned above but they didn’t even write a single word about it. I don’t even know if my loss is going to be compensated or not. Sorry for writing such a long content but i wanted to make everything clear. Am i doing something wrong here? Or am i missing anything? All i want is unlock my dibbs account and get my cancelled contracts back if possible. I’ve invested all my money into this business. Can somebody show me a way to rectify this issue? Thanks in advance..