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Is There A Mandatory Requirement For Awardees To Compete Under Multiple Award Contracts?


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I'm a Department of the Navy contracting type who hopes to award multiple IDIQ contracts for services that may be performed world-wide.

Contracts will each have a five year ordering period and a $100.00 minimum.

FAR 16.505(B)(1)(i) states that the KO "must provide each awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for each order exceeding $3,000.00".

I read an "opportunity" to be a two-way street where an awardee can opt out of competing for an order.

How is this possible under the normal terms of an IDIQ contract where the Gov't maintains a unilateral right to place orders within the contract's specified order parameters?

I ask because some of my world-wide locations are wonderful (San Diego/Norfolk/Washington, DC/Naples/Far East/Dubai), but some of my others (Africa/Iraq/Afghanistan)...maybe not so much.

A contractor may not want the hassle of doing business there and/or may not be able to find someone who wants to go there even after making a good-faith effort to do so.

I give them the "opportunity" to submit an offer. Can they decide not to?

Further, they're not the only one of my multiple awardees who decides not to participate...and I somehow end up with no takers for this particular opportunity.

What remedies do I have?

Are awardees compelled to compete on every order?

If "yes", what does that compulsion do to my competitive contract pricing (i.e. I've got some of my contractors "pricing not to win" this particular task order)?

If "no", do I have an IDIQ or a BPA?

Tx,

NavyKGuy

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I give them the "opportunity" to submit an offer. Can they decide not to?

Further, they're not the only one of my multiple awardees who decides not to participate...and I somehow end up with no takers for this particular opportunity.

What remedies do I have?

Are awardees compelled to compete on every order?

If "yes", what does that compulsion do to my competitive contract pricing (i.e. I've got some of my contractors "pricing not to win" this particular task order)?

If "no", do I have an IDIQ or a BPA?

Tx,

NavyKGuy

Holders of multiple award contracts are not required to compete on your fair opportunity offerings. However, you can consider their participation in your offerings when deciding to exercise an option.

Your contract will include 52.216-22 -- Indefinite Quantity. I recommend that you include a clause, or add a paragraph to 52.216-22, that emphasizes your unilateral right to do a competition via fair opportunity or to place a delivery order directly with a contract holder without doing a fair opportunity competition.

Make sure you use enough line items and specs so that you can issue task orders unilaterally.

You have a contract, not a BPA, if you follow FAR 15 rules and procedures.

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Guest Vern Edwards

The answer to the question about the contractors' obligation to compete depends on what the contract says. The standard FAR clauses do not address the responsibilities of contractors to compete, and silence does not create such a duty. If you want to obligate the contractors to complete, you must write a clause to that effect. Whether writing such a clause can make them compete to win is another matter entirely.

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We've issued some IDIQs lately where we require a response to every RFP, even if it's a "I'm not bidding" email. Put it into the Ordering Procedures explanation and each one only has 3 - 6 awardees so not burdensome. Part of the reason is so that later they cannot claim not to have seen the RFP; other part is so we understand why they are choosing not to bid. We have On Ramp provisions as well so can draw on reasons people did not bid when deciding whether to do the On Ramp.

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