FFP, commercial acquisition - no audit or forward pricing agreement required?

[anovaconsultant]

An FFP, commercial acquisition RFP requires submission of a forward pricing agreement or DCAA audit report in the proposal's business volume (as well as DCMA and DCAA POCs). A bidder's entire contracts team insists that FFP/commercial acquisitions may not require either requirement, and that when they encounter these requirements in Section L they "ignore them" and win awards. (They've never had the audits and have no forward pricing agreements.) They also state that they checked with DAU and were told their interpretation is correct.

I understand where the belief comes from, having heard it many times and seen it posted in questions about RFPs. But it seems to me in the current case the CO has taken the trouble to drop it into specific Section L requirements, and that it is therefore a firm requirement for compliance.

Can bidders ignore this requirement and still be evaluated for the award? If so, is there a citation that supports it?

Thanks in advance.

[Guest Vern Edwards]

1 hour ago, anovaconsultant said:

Can bidders ignore this requirement and still be evaluated for the award?

You're probably going to get a lot of responses to your question. If so, good luck sorting them out.

My answer to the quoted question is: Maybe. It's never best practice to simply ignore an instruction in an RFP.

In this case the request for an FPRA or a DCAA audit report pertaining to the pricing of a commercial item is odd, because a company would not ordinarily be expected to have either of those in that connection.

I suggest that you contact the contracting officer to ask for clarification or explanation of the instruction. It may be a mistake--boilerplate that was inadvertently cut and paste from another RFP. It may be that the person who wrote the instruction simply does not understand that FPRAs and DCAA audit reports are not usually had in the acquisition of commercial items. It may be that the CO only wants to see them from a company that already has them in relation to the item being purchased, but doesn't expect you to seek an FPRA or audit report.

Your best course of action is ask, rather than to theorize or speculate.