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elgueromeromero

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Posts posted by elgueromeromero

  1. The FAR states that a suspension of work may be issued by the contracting officer. Can this be delegated to a COR? Why or why not? If not, what about in a situation that involves health or safety? (e.g. actions of contractor are putting the life or health of an employee in danger).

    FAR 1.602-2(d)(5) says that the COR "has no authority to make any commitments or changes that affect price, quality, quantity, delivery, or other terms and conditions of the contract nor in any way direct the contractor or its subcontractors to operate in conflict with the contract terms and conditions"

    So can the CO delegate anything to a COR that doesn't affect "price, quality, quantity, delivery, or other terms and conditions of the contract"? Not sure if a suspension of work order would qualify as affecting the delivery or some other term of the contract.

    Thanks

  2. You may want to do some reading on Public-Private Partnerships. There is a a Government organization as a "subcontractor" on a contract I manage. In this contract our company is required to "subcontract" a certain percentage of the work to the Public Partner.

    And there are associations for everything:

    http://www.ncppp.org/

    I don't think this type of arrangement would qualify as a public-private partnership - it's basically just subcontracted work where the contractor wants to pay the federal employees to help him perform certain tasks required in his contract in a more efficient manner. I'm assuming that under your contract the contractor is not paying the Government?

    Has anyone else heard of a contractor hiring/paying federal employees to assist them in completing a federal contract?

  3. A contractor wants to know if he can use federal employees to accomplish work on a federal contract. He’s proposing to pay the agency directly or reimburse the agency for the employees’ time via a modification to decrease his contract price. I’ve never heard of a contractor doing this, and have some concerns regarding potential liability and/or OCI issues, but I haven’t been able to find any regulation or policy that speaks specifically to this. The federal employees work for the same agency that awarded the contract, but weren't involved in any way during the source selection and haven't been involved in the contract since the award. Common sense and my gut feeling is that he cannot do this, but I'm sure if I tell him this isn't allowed, he'll ask what specific regulation prohibits this arrangement.

  4. A new wage determination should not be added to a task order.

    When a new new wage determination is incorporated into the contract with the new year, it affects all task orders under the contract. So if a task order performance crosses over the threshold between contract years, the contractor can ask for a price adjustment for the work that occurs after the start of the new contract year for the balance of the task order.

    Thanks - that definitely makes sense. I guess I'm getting hung up on the wording in FAR 22.1007 (below) and that the definition of a 'contract' in FAR 2.101 includes 'orders'.

    22.1007 Requirement to obtain wage determinations.

    The contracting officer shall obtain wage determinations for the following service contracts:

    (a) Each new solicitation and contract in excess of $2,500.

  5. Our office is looking for some clarification on how to handle wage determinations on IDIQ contracts. Example: I have a $100,000 IDIQ contract for services with one base year and four option years. According to FAR 22.1007, I'm required to obtain a wage determination for the base contract. Let's say that six months into the contract's POP I issue a task order for $50,000 and that there has since been a new WD issued by the DOL. Since a task order is technically a contract, do I include the new WD with the task order or does the WD issued with the base contract cover all task orders issued during that year? If the answer is the former (new WD), then wouldn't that invalidate the WD on the base contract and basically trigger the requirement to modify the base contract to include the new WD just issued with the task order? If not, then you would have two conflicting WDs for that task order. The same would be the case with new WDs issued with modifications to exercise an option in this scenario.

  6. Question: Is there ever a situation (besides labor surplus, HUBzone, or disaster recovery) where the offeror's geographic location can be taken into consideration as part of the price evaluation? I've always heard that doing so would be a CICA violation but I can also see the other side of the argument that lowest price isn't always lowest cost.

    Scenario: We have a FFP requirement to paint an airplane. The airplane will need to be flown by Government personnel to the successful offeror's facility for the painting and then flown back once the work is complete. Transportation cost will obviously be a very large part of the (actual) cost. If the plane is located in the western US and an offeror located on the east coast bids the lowest price and gets the award, it could easily end up costing the Government a lot more than awarding to a higher-priced offeror who is geographically located closer to the airplane.

    Can we somehow factor in the actual cost, or can we only look at the price proposed without considering the physical location? If we can somehow figure out a formula for the offerors to use that would factor in the cost of transporting the plane to their facility, would that be appropriate? I'm guessing the answer is "no" and that we will probably end up spending more of our taxpayer's money in the name of "full and open competition" but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

    Thanks in advance.

  7. It's actually a GAO protest and it was received 20 days after award. Offeror received notification of unsuccessful offer on a Friday morning. The government received offeror's request for debriefing the following Wednesday afternoon. Am I correct that you don't count Friday but you do count Saturday and Sunday since "Day" in Part 33 means Calendar Day?

    The protest was not received within 10 days from when the basis of the protest is known or should have been known. In other words, the protester's arguments are not challenging anything that was brought to light in the debriefing - everything was already known or should have been known prior to the debriefing.

  8. Situation: An offeror requested a debriefing five (5) days after receiving the notice that their offer was unsuccessful. The Government agreed to accommodate the untimely debriefing request.

    Question #1: Can the unsuccessful offeror still protest since the debriefing was not requested within 3 days after notification?

    Question #2: If so, is the CO required to stay performance upon receipt of a protest submitted after an untimely debriefing request?

    FAR 33.103(f)(3) and 33.104©(1) seem to suggest that the debriefing request must be timely in order to stay performance; however, see Raith Engineering, B-298333.3, January 9, 2007 (below), which basically states that in regards to filing a protest, it doesn't matter if the offeror secures a required debriefing (i.e.timely requested per FAR 15.506(a)(1)).

    Raith Engineering, B-298333.3, January 9, 2007 "The only effect a required debriefing has on our timeliness requirements is the tolling of the filing period in limited circumstances. See Trifax Corp., B-279561, June 29, 1998, 98-2 CPD ¶ 24 at 4-5. Even where a disappointed offeror does not secure a required debriefing, it continues to retain its right to file a protest within 10 calendar days after it learns, or should have learned, the basis for protest, provided it has diligently pursued the matter. See 4 C.F.R. § 21.2(a)(2). This includes the right to file a timely protest based on information obtained during a debriefing that was not required.1 See Trifax Corp., supra (holding that a protest based on information first revealed in a non-required debriefing may be filed under the generally applicable regulations for filing timely protests)."

    Question #3: How does FAR 15.506(a)(4)(ii) tie into all of this?

    Finally, if an unsuccessful offer has the same right to protest under a non-required debriefing offered after an untimely request for debriefing, then why would a CO ever agree to accommodate an untimely debriefing request if it's going to restart the ten-day clock for filing a protest?

    Thanks

  9. I had a Government Entity (county) submit a quotation in response to an RFQ for a commercial service. The county is registered in SAM and has a DUNS so I'm inclined to assume that they can receive a federal contract. I understand that for the purposes of set-asides they are considered "other than small". I know our office has awarded to the State in the past but it's always been under the authority of 6.302-1 (only one responsible source). I understand the issue of an uneven playing field as a Government entity is subsidized and doesn't have to worry about profit. My instincts say that it wouldn't be fair to allow them to compete for those reasons but doesn't the Government allow other non-profit (non-Government) organizations to compete against for-profit businesses and organizations?

    My question is whether a Government entity (county, in this case) can compete against a private entity for a federal contract. If they can, what authority allows us to award to them? If they can’t, what regulation prohibits them from competing against a private entity and/or receiving a contract?

  10. Situation: We're working on an AP for a service contract for work to be performed in Afghanistan and we're not sure if the exception for a subcontracting plan in FAR 19.702(B)(3) applies. The contract will require a very small amount of support in the US (less than 4% of the personnel required) for outprocessing and other administrative responsibilities.

    Question: When would performance not be considered to be entirely outside of the US? Is it when there's at least one person supporting the contract within the US?? It seems kind of rediculous that a subcontracting plan would be required in that type of situation.

  11. Scenario: Commercial services multiple award IDIQ for $5,000,000 awarded to 4 small business and 1 large business using FAR 13.5.

    FAR 16.505(B)(1)(i) states that "The contracting officer must provide each awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $3,000 issued under multiple-delivery order contracts or multiple task-order contracts, except as provided for in paragraph (B)(2) if this section." (paragraph (B)(2) doesn't apply in this situation)

    FAR 19.502-2(B) states "The contracting officer shall set aside any acquisition over $100,000 for small business participation when there is a reasonable expectation that-

    (1) offers will be obtained from at least two responsible small business concerns offering the products of different small business concerns"

    If I have a D.O. for more than $100,000 am I required to set it aside for the small businesses? If so, it seems that I would be going against FAR 16.505(B)(1)(i) by not providing EACH awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $3,000.

    Please advise.

    Thanks

  12. Does a contract for non-severable services have to fully fund the effort (CLIN) at the time the contract is awarded, or can it be incrementally funded with $$ available for obligation at the time of the contract award?

    For example, I have a non-severable services R&D contract that was awarded in FY07 for $500,000. CLIN 0001 (base effort) was funded in the amount of $78,000 at contract award using FY07 RDT&E funds. A few days ago I recieved a MIPR from the customer to incrementally fund CLIN 0001 using FY08 RDT&E funds in the amount of $200,000.

    Can the contract in this example be incrementally funded? I have heard differing opinions on this. Some say that it can because the FY08 RDT&E was available for obligation at the time of contract award. Others are telling me that it cannot be incrementally funded because in non-severable services contracts, the effort must be fully funded at the time of award.

    Any direction (with references) would be greatly appreciated.

    Shawn

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