Does a Bidder on an Multiple Award IDIQ Umbrella Contract Need to be Responsible for all of the Supplies and Services to be Awarded

[louistm]

If an umbrella contract for an multiple award IDIQ that bundles different products and services, is there any way under the FAR to write the contract so that an awardee (maybe a small business) who is only qualifed to provide some of the products or services could get part of the award and then later compete on task orders that they are qualified for.  I am not talking about a prime/subcontractor arrangement, but including a smaller business who is qualified to provide some of the services as an awardee on the umbrella contract directly.  Under FAR 9.104-1 it looks like it is not possible.

[Vel]

Your question is fairly broad. You could use a single solicitation and then make multiple awards for specific classes of supplies or services, resulting in several multiple award contracts (MACs) that are commodity or service based.

If your focus is really on small business, then you could use a partial set-aside or a reserve.  FAR 19.501(a)(1) generally discusses partial or full small business set-asides, and 19.501(a)(2) generally discusses small business reserves.  19.504(c) provides a little more info on placing orders under reserves.  Of course, FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(F) provides an exception to the fair opportunity process by allowing set-asides when placing orders.

Since you appear to be concerned about determining the smaller firms responsible at the time of award of the IDIQ, the establishment of a reserve may be the better course of action if these firms are actually small businesses for the commodity or service required.  If the small business firms had a lower ordering threshold, then presumably they would not need the same financial, technical and production capabilities as the unrestricted firms. The reserve could state that all orders under X quantity, X dollar amount, or specific class of supply or service would be offered to only small business awardees. If no acceptable proposals were received (or market research determined there would be inadequate competition), then the opportunity would be open to all offerors.

If this is scratching your itch, then we can discuss more.  If I’m on the wrong track I’ll just shut up and wait for others to try to help you.

[Vern Edwards]

11 hours ago, louistm said:

[I]s there any way under the FAR to write the contract so that an awardee (maybe a small business) who is only qualifed to provide some of the products or services could get part of the award and then later compete on task orders that they are qualified for. 

Yes.

The contract should be written so that there is a contract line item for each product or service for which orders can be placed. See FAR Subpart 4.10. Offerors may then be permitted to qualify as responsible for the purposes of competing for future orders for all or only some of the line items.

If, after contract award, you want to allow contractors to qualify as being responsible with respect to additional line items and thereby become eligible to compete for orders for those items, you can write a clause that reserves the government's right to let additional contractors apply to be determined responsible for additional line items at a  later date. I do not know of any standard clause for that, but there may be one in some agency FAR supplement.

[louistm]

9 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

Yes.

The contract should be written so that there is a contract line item for each product or service for which orders can be placed. See FAR Subpart 4.10. Offerors may then be permitted to qualify as responsible for the purposes of competing for future orders for all or only some of the line items.

If, after contract award, you want to allow contractors to qualify as being responsible with respect to additional line items and thereby become eligible to compete for orders for those items, you can write a clause that reserves the government's right to let additional contractors apply to be determined responsible for additional line items at a  later date. I do not know of any standard clause for that, but there may be one in some agency FAR supplement.

Okay, thank you.  To be clear that would be acceptable for an IDIQ umbrella contract correct, not just the task orders. I thought IDIQs were generally done with a prime contractor who could cover everything in the umbrella contract, but then might subcontract some of the work. 

[Vern Edwards]

Well, now I'm not sure what your original question was.

Try again. What do you want to do?

[louistm]

3 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

Well, now I'm not sure what your original question was.

Try again. What do you want to do?

Thank you for your help.  I am a student learning/writing about IDIQs, so it is not for a particular application.  I think I found my answer though. 

[C Culham]

12 hours ago, louistm said:

I think I found my answer though. 

 Here?  Emphasis added.   Federal Acquisition Regulation "16.504(c)(ii)(A) The contracting officer must determine whether multiple awards are appropriate as part of acquisition planning. The contracting officer must avoid situations in which awardees specialize exclusively in one or a few areas within the statement of work, thus creating the likelihood that orders in those areas will be awarded on a sole-source basis; however, each awardee need not be capable of performing every requirement as well as any other awardee under the contracts. The contracting officer should consider the following when determining the number of contracts to be awarded:..."

[formerfed]

VA did something similar at least once.  They planned on multiple awards covering several IT technical subject areas.  The objective was making a sufficient number of awards so potential competition of three sources was achieved in each of the technical subject areas.  Offerors we’re free to propose on as many subject areas as they chose.  Another aspect was a minimum of two awards were reserved for small businesses. Despite awards only made on specific subject areas, Each contractor was free to propose on any subject area so small companies in particular that grew expertise in the future could compete. 

[Vern Edwards]

39 minutes ago, formerfed said:

Offerors we’re free to propose on as many subject areas as they chose.  Another aspect was a minimum of two awards were reserved for small businesses. Despite awards only made on specific subject areas, Each contractor was free to propose on any subject area so small companies in particular that grew expertise in the future could compete.

@formerfed

How did that work? Did it work like this?

Suppose that an RFP for a MATOC specifies four "subject areas", each described by a CLIN. The RFP says that offerors can submit proposals for one or any combination of the four subject areas.

Offeror A submits a proposal for Subject Area 1, CLIN 0001, but not for CLINs 0002, 0003, or 0004, and is awarded a contract. It is now a contractor for CLIN 0001, Subject Area 1, and is designated Contractor 1A.

But when the agency issues a fair opportunity notice for CLIN 0003, Subject Area 3, Contractor 1A may submit a proposal and be awarded the order, even though it did not submit a proposal on CLIN 0003 and its award included only CLIN 0001.

Is that how it worked?

 

[louistm]

2 hours ago, C Culham said:

 Here?  Emphasis added.   Federal Acquisition Regulation "16.504(c)(ii)(A) The contracting officer must determine whether multiple awards are appropriate as part of acquisition planning. The contracting officer must avoid situations in which awardees specialize exclusively in one or a few areas within the statement of work, thus creating the likelihood that orders in those areas will be awarded on a sole-source basis; however, each awardee need not be capable of performing every requirement as well as any other awardee under the contracts. The contracting officer should consider the following when determining the number of contracts to be awarded:..."

Yes, that is it.   The question is exactly what that means.  I think the plain language says that they need to be capable but not the best. Thanks for your help. 

[Vern Edwards]

@louistm

In your opening post you said:

On 3/22/2022 at 7:39 PM, louistm said:

If an umbrella contract for an multiple award IDIQ that bundles different products and services, is there any way under the FAR to write the contract so that an awardee (maybe a small business) who is only qualifed to provide some of the products or services could get part of the award and then later compete on task orders that they are qualified for.  I am not talking about a prime/subcontractor arrangement, but including a smaller business who is qualified to provide some of the services as an awardee on the umbrella contract directly.  Under FAR 9.104-1 it looks like it is not possible.

Then you said you got your answer, and C Culham said:

3 hours ago, C Culham said:

 Here?  Emphasis added.   Federal Acquisition Regulation "16.504(c)(ii)(A) The contracting officer must determine whether multiple awards are appropriate as part of acquisition planning. The contracting officer must avoid situations in which awardees specialize exclusively in one or a few areas within the statement of work, thus creating the likelihood that orders in those areas will be awarded on a sole-source basis; however, each awardee need not be capable of performing every requirement as well as any other awardee under the contracts. The contracting officer should consider the following when determining the number of contracts to be awarded:..."

To which you replied:

1 hour ago, louistm said:

Yes, that is it.   The question is exactly what that means.  I think the plain language says that they need to be capable but not the best. Thanks for your help. 

In your opening you referred to the standards of responsibility in FAR 9.104-1. The FAR passage that C Culham wrote about is a different matter than the standards of responsibility in FAR 9.104-1. It referred to standards of comparison with other contractors. The standards of responsibility are pass/fail standards, not standards of comparison with other contractors.

How much of what you are reading and saying in this thread do you understand?

Edited March 24, 2022 by Vern Edwards
Edited for clarity

[formerfed]

7 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

@formerfed

How did that work? Did it work like this?

Suppose that an RFP for a MATOC specifies four "subject areas", each described by a CLIN. The RFP says that offerors can submit proposals for one or any combination of the four subject areas.

Offeror A submits a proposal for Subject Area 1, CLIN 0001, but not for CLINs 0002, 0003, or 0004, and is awarded a contract. It is now a contractor for CLIN 0001, Subject Area 1, and is designated Contractor 1A.

But when the agency issues a fair opportunity notice for CLIN 0003, Subject Area 3, Contractor 1A may submit a proposal and be awarded the order, even though it did not submit a proposal on CLIN 0003 and its award included only CLIN 0001.

Is that how it worked?

 

That’s it exactly.  

[Vern Edwards]

16 hours ago, formerfed said:

That’s it exactly.  

@formerfedInteresting.

You conduct a competition to select contractors to do various task order work, award a contract to specific contractors to do specific work, then let everybody compete to do everything, regardless of what they were awarded a contract to do.

[formerfed]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:14 AM, Vern Edwards said:

@formerfedInteresting.

You conduct a competition to select contractors to do various task order work, award a contract to specific contractors to do specific work, then let everybody compete to do everything, regardless of what they were awarded a contract to do.

I don’t remember the specifics and mostly just read about it at the time.  But I believe a company not initially awarded a CLIN had to submit documentation showing equivalent qualifications as awardees to later be eligible for awards under the new CLIN.   VA want to grow a pool of capbable companies that knew their IT work and felt this was a way.  Hopefully someone from VA can add more.  

[REA'n Maker]

On 3/25/2022 at 10:14 AM, Vern Edwards said:

You conduct a competition to select contractors to do various task order work, award a contract to specific contractors to do specific work, then let everybody compete to do everything, regardless of what they were awarded a contract to do.

So why conduct the IDIQ competition in the first place?  My lawyer's head would explode.

[Vern Edwards]

Excellent question.