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Modification to Release Orders under BPA?


Radu C.

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Good morning,

I am struggling to keep my organization from changing Release Orders under BPAs. We use BPAs to procure taxi services, printing supplies, airline tickets, order conference venues. 

We sign a Release Order once we know the requirements. The problem is that for some events we don’t know exactly the number of attendees. For example we place a Release Order for 50 lunches and then get an invoice for 54 lunches (as 4 more attendees showed up). The project team would like to modify the Release Order to add 4 lunches. However, in my opinion, we cannot do it and instead we need to issue a new Release Order for 4 lunches. The problem here, however, is that the new RO is placed after the fact.  

In my view Release Orders under a BPA cannot be modified as they the simplest possible mechanism for ordering goods and services. If the quantities increase for any reason an additional Release Order should be placed. If quantities decrease - payment is made only for the items delivered. 

I could not find any reference in FAR regarding modifications of release orders, but does anyone know of a good analysis/description of this subject?

Thank you

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I have never heard the term "Release Order."

But, how about setting up your "Release Order" for the requirement (feed all attendees, estimated quantity = 50), and then pay for what was actually served?

It may be that you are not fully utilizing the flexibility afforded by BPAs under FAR Part 13.  With a BPA, you can allow a list of people to make purchases, subject to reasonable limitations, and then the contractor submits an invoice at the end of the month for all purchases made during the month.  See FAR 13.303-3(a)(6).

If you are struggling, you are working too hard.  If you are issuing a funded order before the event, you are NOT fully using the BPA flexibility. 

Edited by ji20874
Added NOT in last sentence.
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 9/30/2019 at 1:11 PM, ji20874 said:

I have never heard the term "Release Order."

But, how about setting up your "Release Order" for the requirement (feed all attendees, estimated quantity = 50), and then pay for what was actually served?

It may be that you are not fully utilizing the flexibility afforded by BPAs under FAR Part 13.  With a BPA, you can allow a list of people to make purchases, subject to reasonable limitations, and then the contractor submits an invoice at the end of the month for all purchases made during the month.  See FAR 13.303-3(a)(6).

If you are struggling, you are working too hard.  If you are issuing a funded order before the event, you are fully using the BPA flexibility. 

Thank you ji20874. We use the term "release order" to place orders against a BPA. It is synonymous with "call" or "ticket". 

I agree that we are not fully utilizing the flexibility. The release order is issued prior to the event. In the example above, we ended up ordering more than what was initially sought (54 v. 50 lunches). We need a papertrail for the 4 lunches that shows that an authorized person confirmed the additional amount (otherwise participants can bring their own guests abusing the event). The papertrail involves a purchase requisition that will result in a new "release order" for 4 lunches.  This is cumbersome for everone. 

 

 

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So, are you saying that you can’t use an estimated quantity in a call? 

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