bpa pricing

[Michael11]

we submitted pricing for a bpa in which we mapped the requested agency categories to our gsa categories and rates. the award was made. the first call order has now been released. the staff qualifications requested in the call order are very low, much less than we call for in our gsa schedule. if we bid our staffing mix strictly against the qualifications in the call order (so someone that may require 5 years of experience to be used under our gsa qualifications but fits the need of the bpa with only 2) is that permissible? I don't know why i'm having so much trouble with this any help is greatly appreciated!

[Michael11]

Like in an extreme example, the call order says the senior project manager needs 2 years of experience. We have the senior project manager category on our schedule and it normally calls for 5+. can we bid someone at the SR PM if they meet the necessary experience for the call order (2 years) but we wouldn't normally be able to bid them any higher than that?

[here_2_help]

You said you mapped your categories. I would think you would be on safe ground in following that mapping. Specifically, I don't think you can get in trouble for providing individuals that possess MORE than the required minimums.

Hope this helps.

[Jamaal Valentine]

I read it to say that the base BPA requires 5 years experience but the individual call only required 2 years experience.

The BPA is only an agreement and the call results in the contract so it should be okay right?

Probably best and easiest to just call the contracting officer and ask.

[Michael11]

Thank you. Agree it's best to call the CO and figure out. Hopefully we can reach them before it's due.

To maybe explain better what I was trying to ask. The initial (initial) BPA evaluation had NO minimum qualifications at all for any LCAT. We basically mapped our LCATs and established the rates based on functional titles. But NOW the Call Order is imposing qualifications for these categories, hence why our staff are wildly out of place when looking at the rate we proposed compared to the qualifications.

If I understand correctly, you're always required to maintain at a minimum the qualifications for staff on your GSA schedule. If a call order or task order imposes more stringent requirements, you have to meet those too. But if the opposite happens and at the call order level they put very low requirements, you still have to default to you GSA requirements and meet those (and if your GSA qualifications trump those in the call order obviously you're meeting both at the same time)

[Desparado]

Michael11 - I agree with your post #5. I think you have it down!

[fizzy]

It is permissible for you to bid on the order issued under the schedule BPA with a labor hour category that exceeds the requirements of the order unless prohibited in the BPA order solicitation. This forces you to discount those more experienced labor hour categories to be competitive, if this is a multiple award BPA and you are competing for the order. It sounds like the problem you have is that you don't have an agreement under the BPA for the lower-level staffing that would allow you to bid competitively for these types of orders. You may wish to discuss with the matter with the CO.

[Michael11]

thanks all. fizzy you've brought up a good point. my problem is that they made clear when evaluating the initial BPAs that the mapping of rates and categories was for evaluation purposes. they had a level of effort plug for each category you mapped which brought you to your overall budget. which is now technically the bpa ordering ceiling per year. it was completely asinine to me and a complete mess during the questioning phase. it would take a long time to explain but i'm positive that every contractor's bpa looks totally different. right or wrong, probably wrong, we ended up essentially remapping our labor categories for the first call order in full disclosure the way the bpa was setup made no sense. that is we put our preffered staffing mix and put their according gsa rate in which may or may not have been perfectly in line with what the bpa called for.

[fizzy]

Remember your Blanket Purchase Agreement includes only those labor hour categories that you've entered into an agreement with the government for performance of orders under the BPA. Those that you submitted for evaluation and were agreed to by the government are the only ones you can use to compete for an order under the BPA.

If you only quoted higher-priced labor hour categories, then you are forced to bid fewer resources to complete a task that may have been more efficiently performed with lower-priced labor hour categories. You got your agreement by plugging in whatever labor hour rates you had into the hypothetical level of effort used for evaluation purposes. If the actual orders competed under the BPA are most efficiently completed by lower priced labor hour categories, you are forced to either discount your rates or restrict the number of people you quote at your agreed upon higher-priced labor hour rates to be competitive at the order level.

It's either a lesson learned in quoting, or an opportunity to discuss the possibility of a bi-lateral modification, though if I were the CO, I would not entertain one contractor's predicament and the possibility of a bi-lateral mod unless I were extending the same opportunity to all BPA holders.

You can always discount your GSA rate of your higher-priced people to be competitive, but of course, it would have been ideal had you submitted a Quote for both low and high labor hour categories, giving you flexibility when you compete at the Order level.