Guest Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Has anyone had experience with obtaing alternative proposals during the initial source selection? As part of a procurement that I am the current CO, the customer and senior management want the vendors to prepare and propose an alternative proposal that demonstrates their innovative approach. However, they do not want the alternative proposal to be costed, just the technical and managment peice is required. This is an addition to respodining to the Government's requirements and stated LOE for the CPAF/CPFF IDIQ effort. The use of the alternative proposals is a concern of mine given that we will be evaluating their "standard" proposal and then their "innovative alterntative" against the same adjectivale ratings and I am concerned that our best value decision could be swade by the alternative propsoal without cost. I know this sounds crazy. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vern Edwards Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 It's stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
here_2_help Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Not only is it stupid, but it's wasteful of time, money, and resources. Your management does understand that preparing proposals--even uncosted alternative proposals--takes time and money, right? And that time and money gets included in the contractors' indirect rates, which are then passed on to existing customers in the form of higher overhead/G&A rates. In other words, the government ends up paying for this stupidity. I am sick and tired of reading about how contractors are gouging government customers through too-high indirect rates, when it is those very same customers that drive up the rates by stupid direction, of which this is a beautiful example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 I take "Alternative Proposal" to mean something different; something submitted at the same time the other ("original") proposals are due. What you describe I might call something else, because if it ain't costed, it ain't a real proposal. "Brainstorming ?" "Advisory and Assistance Services ?" "Doing our thinking for us ?" "Creating and donating IP for free ?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy_Contracting_4 Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 It sounds to me like the customer is not sure what his real requirements are. If that's the case, it may be premature to issue a solicitation. Perhaps it's time to drop back and do some market research and/or issue an RFI to solicit industry suggestions for alternative and innovative approaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FAR Fetched Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 The use of the alternative proposals is a concern of mine given that we will be evaluating their "standard" proposal and then their "innovative alterntative" against the same adjectivale ratings and I am concerned that our best value decision could be swade by the alternative propsoal without cost. You might as well get the protest paperwork ready now too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy_Contracting_4 Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 ThetaXi20, Have you considered using FAR 52.215-1 ALT II? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vern Edwards Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 Alternate proposals sound great to many program people, but most of them do not understand source selection well enough to be aware of the difficulties that come with them. Here is the problem with alternate proposals, from the government's point of view: How do you evaluate them? Suppose, for instance, that the government puts 52.215-1 Alt II in a solicitation calling for a firm-fixed-price contract and one of the offerors proposes a fixed-price incentive contract (firm target). FAR 52.215-1 Alt II permits that, but how will the agency evaluate the proposal? How will it compare proposals for FFP to a proposal for FPI(F)? Do the existing evaluation factors encompass contract type? Of course, the agency can always amend the RFP after receipt of proposals, but that takes time, and we're talking about a contract formation process that already takes 2 to 3 years in some agencies. I am willing to posit a general rule that alternate proposals are too troublesome to be bothered with in most cases. Accommodation and consideration of alternate proposals will take time and cost money for both sides. As here_to_help said, they are not fair to industry, especially in these hard times. While an expert CO might handle them well, in my experience most COs do not know the rules well enough or have enough procedural know-how to handle alternate proposals without difficulty. The motto for the age is: Keep it simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whynot Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 Presumably, an LOE solicitation would require the bidders to bid against a set of labor categories and hours. The government’s basis for those IDIQ categories and hours is based upon their own internal assessment of what is required to meet their needs. A bidder may have an innovative approach that would fully meet or exceed the requirements with a lower overall LOE. I would think it would be in the government’s interest to see if their needs could be met with fewer resources and award to a bidder that gives them the best chance to do so. I would prefer to explore ways to simply and properly evaluate this potential rather than avoiding it. If an un-priced alternative proposal is not a good way to go then we should try to find a better one. I think a CO would be better regarded by their customers if they work to solve their problems rather than being a road block with no detour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vern Edwards Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 Describe what you want done or achieved and ask the offerors to propose an LOE, instead of stipulating the LOE in the solicitation. Or stipulate an LOE as a guideline and tell the offerors to propose their own and to explain and justify any deviation from the guideline. Or state your budget and ask the offerors to propose the best LOE they can at or below the budget. I would explain to the "customers" that I can achieve their objective in any of those ways without needlessly complicating the evaluation process, making it take longer, and making them and the offerors do more work. Problem solved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weno2 Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 FAR 52.215-1, Alternate II allows the submission of alternate proposals for competitive, contracting by negotiation procurements. FAR 52.212-1(e) "encourages offerors to submit multiple offers presenting alternate terms and conditions or commercial items for satisfying the requirements of this solicitation." If the government alters FAR 52.212-1, by deleting (e), would this still allow an offeror to submit an alternate proposal? Or is (e) only applicable for offerors who wish to submit multiple offers, but decides to submit a single offer which is an alternate proposal? Or should the commercial solicitation have a separate provision stating the government will not accept alternate proposals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apsofacto Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 It sounds like very expensive market research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vern Edwards Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 If the government alters FAR 52.212-1, by deleting (e), would this still allow an offeror to submit an alternate proposal? [Emphasis added.] Deleting (e) would not "allow" an offeror to submit multiple offers, but doing that would not prohibit an offeror from submitting multiple offers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weno2 Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 Vern, "prohibit" offerors from submitting multiple offers, or prohibit offerors from submitting alternate proposals? It may make sense to write a provision prohibiting offerors to submit an alternate proposal, or the provision stating the government will not consider alternate proposals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vern Edwards Posted September 25, 2015 Report Share Posted September 25, 2015 Okay, deleting the paragraph does not prohibit offerors from submitting alternate proposals. Why on earth would you think it would? If you don't want alternate proposals, don't prohibit them, just say you won't consider them for award. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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