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brian

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Posts posted by brian

  1. fwiw,

    my guess is that most protests are precipitated by a contractor's perception of being treated unfairly, not due to a perception of simple errors by agency personnel.

    If so, the best way to prevent protests would be to conduct acquisitions so that offerors and potential offerors don't think you're being unfair.

    My guess, providing MORE information to all potential offerors, and unsuccessful bidders, is going to PREVENT protests. Agencies seem to believe that they open the door to protests by revealing information, but that may only be the case is there is bad faith to be concealed.

  2. am I the only one who posts here who has ever worked for a fed contractor in a position covered by an Area Wage Determination ?

    Back in 1994, when the world was a lot less connected, it was the hourly workers who found out when there was a new Wage Determination, and the workers would tell the Contractor.

    Now with the WD's on the web, that must still be the case.

  3. Vern,

    I once had a gig as a Small Business Utilization and Development Specialist in Interior.

    Very fun job.

    I found that some small businesses were reluctant to push for fair consideration, lest they develop a reputation of being I guess pushy, or hard to work with, or something.

    But my own anecdotal experience was that some of the small businesses who were pushy about getting to meet with end users usually got at least the fair consideration of their services or products they sought, and in some cases even got small awards so that our programs could test drive their offerings.

    The hardest sell was usually the buyer in the Contracting Office, who didn't want to change.

  4. I think the appropriate resolution to this soufflé kerfluffle is a beer summit.

    Do you both live in the DC Metro area ?

    I don't, not any more. Colorado.

    Maybe someone who still lives there - a neutral third party - could referee the beer consumption ?

    -

    And Mr. Edwards might not be the right guy for that particular job.

    His Basic Airborne logo/ avatar suggests that he served either:

    • with Jimi Hendricks and P4 in the Jumpin' Junkies / puking buzzards (Aerosol,) meaning he can't handle his liquor, or
    • with the All American (Airborne,) meaning he will drink the other two under the table.

    Is this comment too "inside baseball ?"

  5. technically, you are exactly right.

    but the limitations-on-subcontracting concept developed in the context of other-than-small businesses pimping small businesses to win contracts, who would then pass all the work on through to the pimp, for a "handling fee." The practice has quite a history.

    If the adjudicating officer knows that history, and sees this as a case of maybe 1% one way or the other, not a pass-through, then she or he may think "why sweat the small stuff ?"

    This is not a pass-through of the sort that elicited the rule. Its around the margins. And, when the work is actually done, maybe the prime ends up doing more of the work than they expected.

  6. Knowing that there's a possibly qualified alternate source, going sole source has the potential of causing some real heartburn.

    Which could translate into delays and other unpleasantness.

    My 2 cents, solicit SBSA, or unrestricted, and make Past Performance #1 in the best value evaluation.

    No better way to educate the potential sore loser on what requiring activities consider key.

    If I understand the requirement, I can think of two different sources with pretty good reputations, WestLaw and Lexis-Nexis.

    I'd guess that a JOFOC will be like a red flag in this particular case.

  7. What are the advantages to a Contractor to having something determined to be a Commercial Item ?

    All I can think of is that:

    1) they don't have to furnish any cost or pricing data, plus

    2) a couple dozen clauses and provisions for non-CI solicitations/ contracts are left out.

    Are there any disadvantages ?

    .............................

    On the other hand, for an Agency, it seems like it makes a much bigger difference to them.

    The whole acquisition process goes faster, including evaluation.

    The one downside I can think of, CO's who are more comfortable looking at cost and price data may fear that they are paying too much.

    What are the reasons a CO may NOT want to call something a Commercial Item ?

    This authority has been around for almost 20 years now.

    I'd expect it to be used more often.

  8. newbie-ish question:

    I thought that a contractor didn't actually "accept" a DX contract, but that they had to perform, whether they wanted to or not.

    I thought that Ktrs signed up for getting DX orders forced on them,

    though I haven't a clue how one becomes a member of the exclusive "critical industrial base" club subject to that burden.

    I've never been involved in something in DPAS.

    not true ?

  9. 2 thoughts:

    first, props for providing a debriefing even though the request was not timely; and

    second, even though something can be protested anytime to COFC,

    with no formal timeliness limits,

    the court does rely somewhat on GAO's rules for a sense of what is timely and and diligent in pursuit of the matter.

    I personally see protests as generally a good thing, allowing sunshine into an otherwise closed system.

    But I recognize that, even despite errors that may injure parties, the government does need to get on with its work.

    The GAO timeliness requirements strike me as a reasonable balance between these competing values, openness/ accountability and keeping the government running.

  10. brian,

    ... your post is one of the better examples of free verse that I've seen in this forum. ...

    I just figured out what you are referring to.

    I use a lot of white space and carriage returns in my writing.

    Back when I was your age, and typed stuff on a "typewriter," I was concerned with the efficient use of typing paper.

    I tried to get as much info onto a page as I could. Text was quite dense.

    But today, I hardly ever type on paper.

    Now almost all I type onto is a computer monitor.

    All that white space doesn't cost me a nickel more.

    Plus, I and some of the people I write for are visually impaired.

    This style, which I call "low-cost electrons," makes for much easier reading for old fogies.

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