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Can a solicitation have both LPTA and Trade-Off?


govt2310

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Has anyone ever seen a solicitation that had multiple evaluation methods?  Say a solicitation is for a multiple award IDIQ, and there will be multiple tasks, each with their own PWS, none of the tasks/PWSs are the same, and the offeror does not have to bid on all the tasks, and some tasks will be evaluated as LPTA and others will be evaluated as Trade-Off.

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Okay, imagine this.

An FFP contract for product design and production.

CLIN 0001 would be a FFP service for product design based on a government performance specification. The work would include design, production engineering, prototype production, and prototype testing. The deliverables would be prototypes, design and production data, and testing data.

CLIN 0002 would be a FFP unit-priced option for production of a specified number of product units.

CLIN 0001 would be evaluated on a tradeoff basis. CLIN 0002 would be evaluated on an LPTA basis. Award would be based on overall evaluation results, with the CLINs equally important.

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6 minutes ago, Vern Edwards said:

Okay, imagine this.

A simpler example:

A FFP contract for a product (commercial or non).

CLIN 0001 is for the product itself.

CLIN 0002 is for the installation.

CLIN 0001 will be evaluated as a tradeoff, based on warranty length (ex. - 5 v. 3 years) and value (ex. - limited v. unlimited). 

CLIN 0002 will be evaluated as LPTA.

11 minutes ago, Vern Edwards said:

An FFP contract for product design and production.

Forgive me, but I don't think that "n" goes there - 😁

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1 hour ago, Constricting Officer said:

Forgive me, but I don't think that "n" goes there - 😁

@Constricting OfficerI don't think I will. You're wrong. FFP is spoken eff-eff-pee. From the Purdue Writing Lab:

Quote

If the first letter makes a vowel-type sound, you use "an"; if the first letter would make a consonant-type sound, you use "a."

From grammar.com:

Quote

Here’s the secret to making the rule work: The rule applies to the sound of the letter beginning the word, not just the letter itself. The way we say the word will determine whether or not we use a or an. If the word begins with a vowel sound, you must use an. If it begins with a consonant sound, you must use a.

From merriam-webster.com:

Quote

Choosing between the indefinite articles a and an is determined by the sound of the following word. If the word begins with a consonant sound you would use a, such as "a dog" and "a balloon," as well as "a one" and "a unicorn." If the word begins with a vowel sound, use an, such as in "an honorable man," and with spoken acronyms like "an FBI agent."

Thank you for making my day. It's always fun to nail a smarta--. The last two letters are an ess and an ess.

😉

And your example is a simpler scenario, not a simpler example.

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20 hours ago, govt2310 said:

 

Has anyone ever seen a solicitation that had multiple evaluation methods?  Say a solicitation is for a multiple award IDIQ, and there will be multiple tasks, each with their own PWS, none of the tasks/PWSs are the same, and the offeror does not have to bid on all the tasks, and some tasks will be evaluated as LPTA and others will be evaluated as Trade-Off.

Are you referring to a competition for the base multiple award task order contract (MATOC) ? I haven’t seen one where there are multiple seed tasks for the base MATOC award and where a proposer can select which one or ones to compete for.

Or are you referring to the myriad of possible task orders after being awarded a MATOC contract?

I’ve seen Single Award Task Order contracts (SATOCs) or MATOCs where the subsequent task orders will have various task order bases of award.

Please clarify if you are asking about the basic ID/IQ competition or for subsequent task orders.

I am also curious whether this is a supply and/or services scenario.

Thanks. 

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15 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

@Constricting OfficerI don't think I will. You're wrong. FFP is spoken eff-eff-pee. From the Purdue Writing Lab:

From grammar.com:

From merriam-webster.com:

Thank you for making my day. It's always fun to nail a smarta--. The last two letters are an ess and an ess.

😉

And your example is a simpler scenario, not a simpler example.

Personally, I'd use "an FFP", but did some market research anyway on Google Books to see what a search of edited texts had to show about this; I ended up a bit surprised at pretty strong showing for "a FFP". Caveat: The search results are a mixed bag and not just contracting related:

"a FFP" showed up in 486 results

and

 "an FFP" showed up in 537 results

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50 minutes ago, FAR-flung 1102 said:

Personally, I'd use "an FFP", but did some market research anyway on Google Books to see what a search of edited texts had to show about this; I ended up a bit surprised at pretty strong showing for "a FFP". Caveat: The search results are a mixed bag and not just contracting related:

"a FFP" showed up in 486 results

and

 "an FFP" showed up in 537 results

Some authors need proof readers and content editors. I'm lucky to have both.

Whether you have a proof reader or an editor, a writer should have good reference works, like the Chicago Manual of Style. See § 5.72,

Quote

Choosing "a" or "an."

FFP is an initialism. See this: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/indefinite-article-with-initialisms/.

People who would use "a" before FFP because F is a consonant either do not understand the rule of grammar or are thinking of the entire phrase "firm fixed price." the word "firm' does not begin with a vowel sound, so you would use "a". But FFP, spoken as in FBI, begins with a vowel sound.

Contracting officers have to write stuff. So...

Doesn't everybody have a personal library of professionally important reference works?

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28 minutes ago, Vern Edwards said:

Some authors need proof readers and content editors. I'm lucky to have both.

Whether you have a proof reader or an editor, a writer should have good reference works, like the Chicago Manual of Style. See § 5.72,

FFP is an initialism. See this: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/indefinite-article-with-initialisms/.

People who would use "a" before FFP because F is a consonant either do not understand the rule of grammar or are thinking of the entire phrase "firm fixed price." the word "firm' does not begin with a vowel sound, so you would use "a". But FFP, spoken as in FBI, begins with a vowel sound.

Contracting officers have to write stuff. So...

Doesn't everybody have a personal library of professionally important reference works?

Thank you for the link. I believe I knew the rule intuitively, but it was very nice to see it explained authoritatively.

How did I know it intuitively? Genetics. My mother was an English teacher for 40 years.

Thanks, Mom.

😄

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The nuns taught us, in no uncertain terms, that you get more Grace at Mass,  the closer to the front you sit…

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Ok, I need to provide more details.  Say it is a RFP for a MATOC, similar to this RFP that the Air Force did for health services, and which was the subject of the Global Dynamis GAO decision here, https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-417776.pdf.  The RFP is available at https://govtribe.com/opportunity/federal-contract-opportunity/defense-health-agency-medical-q-coded-services-mqs-acquisition-ht005016r0001, but depending on how many times you have accessed govtribe, it may be behind a paywall for you.  Here is a screenshot of the pertinent section of the PWS (see attached).

 

 

Annotation 2022-03-09 172839.png

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So, are you asking about something like using LPTA to select the winners for the Physicians an Dental market segments. and tradeoff to select the winners for the Ancillary and Nursing market segments?

If that is your question, I don't see a problem.  Please note that I have only read what you have posted here.

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@govt2310 You have posted twice in this thread.

On 3/3/2022 at 7:51 AM, govt2310 said:

Has anyone ever seen a solicitation that had multiple evaluation methods?  Say a solicitation is for a multiple award IDIQ, and there will be multiple tasks, each with their own PWS, none of the tasks/PWSs are the same, and the offeror does not have to bid on all the tasks, and some tasks will be evaluated as LPTA and others will be evaluated as Trade-Off.

and

11 hours ago, govt2310 said:

Ok, I need to provide more details.  Say it is a RFP for a MATOC, similar to this RFP that the Air Force did for health services, and which was the subject of the Global Dynamis GAO decision here, https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-417776.pdf.  The RFP is available at https://govtribe.com/opportunity/federal-contract-opportunity/defense-health-agency-medical-q-coded-services-mqs-acquisition-ht005016r0001, but depending on how many times you have accessed govtribe, it may be behind a paywall for you.  Here is a screenshot of the pertinent section of the PWS (see attached).

Unless I have missed a post, the only question you have asked is in the first sentence of the first post, in bold above.

Is that still the question? "Has anybody ever seen..."?

Do you have another question?

 

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On 3/9/2022 at 5:39 PM, ji20874 said:

So, are you asking about something like using LPTA to select the winners for the Physicians an Dental market segments. and tradeoff to select the winners for the Ancillary and Nursing market segments?

If that is your question, I don't see a problem.  Please note that I have only read what you have posted here.

Yes, that is my question: could you use, say LPTA, to select the winners for one market segment, but use, say Trade-Off, to select the winners for the other market segments?  ji20874 thinks there is no problem.  Note, in that Air Force RFP, they did not use two different methods to select the winners.  But I'm wondering, could you do that?  And if you can, does anybody have an example solicitation of where this was done? 

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7 hours ago, govt2310 said:

But I'm wondering, could you do that?  And if you can, does anybody have an example solicitation of where this was done?

gov2310,

I'm unable to discern what you are really asking.  Below are two answers that I offer to you...

1.  [If your cited example uses two techniques]  Didn't you post an example above on Wednesday at 05:29 PM?  Apparently, it can be done, and apparently it has been done in the example you shared.  What really is your question?

2.  [If your cited example does not use two techniques]  Could the example you posted on Wednesday at 5:29 PM have used two techniques?  Sure -- why not?  What really is your question?

If you are looking for sample text, here is something I made on-the-spot...

"The government intends to award multiple-award BOAs for work in four market segments:  Physicians, Dental, Ancillary, and Nursing.  The government will select awardees for the Physicians and Dental market segments using an LPTA approach as described in subsection A below, and will select awardees for the Ancillary and Nursing market segments using a tradeoff approach as described in subsection B below."

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9 hours ago, govt2310 said:

Yes, that is my question: could you use, say LPTA, to select the winners for one market segment, but use, say Trade-Off, to select the winners for the other market segments?  ji20874 thinks there is no problem.  Note, in that Air Force RFP, they did not use two different methods to select the winners.  But I'm wondering, could you do that?  And if you can, does anybody have an example solicitation of where this was done? 

Why CANT you do it? You can use a combination of go/No and comparative evaluation criteria in a trade off competition.

So,  when making selections to award separate services or separate products for a (multiple award) MATOC pool or pools, why can’t you use separate eval criteria and bases of award for LPTA and for Trade-off to form your pool or pools (however you desire to organize the pool or pools)? 

Do you want sample evaluation criteria from such an approach? I don’t know why you can’t develop evaluation criteria and bases of award for LPTA and for trade off for the separate services or separate products, yourself. 

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8 hours ago, govt2310 said:

Yes, that is my question: could you use, say LPTA, to select the winners for one market segment, but use, say Trade-Off, to select the winners for the other market segments?

@govt2310If you want to make two (or more) awards from one solicitation, one award for one "market segment" and one for another "market segment," and want to use different approaches for selecting the contractor(s) for each segment, begin by establishing one contract line item for the first market segment and one for the second. Then, in Section M of the RFP (supposing that you are using the Uniform Contract Format), describe the evaluation approach (tradeoff or LPTA) and factors for the first CLIN and do the same for the second CLIN. Essentially, you conduct two source selections under a single solicitation.

It is clearly permissible. It is easy. And I just told you how to do it. ji20874 told you how to explain it in the solicitation.

You joined Wifcon in 2009. You are not a newbie.

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