Program folks requesting Quotes

[anoncon]

New to an agency and I'm getting SOW and estimate from program staff. When I talk to them about the requirement they say they have gotten estimate from a particular vendor and "this is what it should cost" and we should probably go to this vendor.

When does market research by the program staff draw the line and how should I articulate to these folks the proper process, or should I just elevate it and have their managers talk to them ( I suspect the manager is in full support of getting estimates prior to involving contracting.

[formerfed]

New to an agency and I'm getting SOW and estimate from program staff. When I talk to them about the requirement they say they have gotten estimate from a particular vendor and "this is what it should cost" and we should probably go to this vendor.

When does market research by the program staff draw the line and how should I articulate to these folks the proper process, or should I just elevate it and have their managers talk to them ( I suspect the manager is in full support of getting estimates prior to involving contracting.

The question I ask back is "what's the harm?" The program office needs an estimate even if its for nothing more than budgeting. So they ask the vendor. The alternative is they do a guess, send the package to procurement, and wait weeks for a contracts person to get to their request. Then they find out their estimate was 5% low so they have to go back and do another requisition.

My advice is develop a good working relationship with program office personnel. Tell them what you need, why, and when. Listen to them as well.

[anoncon]

Thanks for the response. I guess there is no harm, the problem comes when they've gone to a large contractor and asked for a price without considering that the requirement will need to be set aside and once all the required clauses go on (construction) the price will most likely be higher and a guy that had no chance of getting the award has been led down the path of thinking he had a shot.

[Guest Vern Edwards]

When the program staff asked for the estimate from the particular vendor, did they give the vendor an advance copy of the specification or statement of work? Did the vendor suggest changes that would improve quality or reduce costs? If so, did the program staff accept those recommendations?

Asking a particular vendor for an estimate and then sending that estimate to the contracting office is not my idea of "market research." Moreover, depending on the nature of the procurement and the circumstances, disclosing the government's statement of work to a particular vendor in advance might not be everyone's idea of conducting business with integrity, fairness, and openness. See FAR 1.102-2( c). While FAR 15.201 encourages early exchanges with potential offerors, it cannot be read to encourage exchanges with only a particular prospective offeror to the exclusion of others. Lacking details (and not wanting them), I won't say that the program staff did a bad thing, but they need to understand that the integrity of the contracting system and of the conduct of a particular acquisition requires discretion and prudence. Frankly, I suspect that the program staff were either incompetent or too lazy to develop an independent estimate of their own. I also suspect that they went to the particular vendor because that's the one they want and expect to do business with. That approach to doing things is not "market research."