I'm working in Afghanistan for a non-DOD agency and am wondering if I can use the $1M threshold for SAT as Afghanistan is a contingency operation as per FAR 2.101 as we can no longer use FAR 13.5. The award I am doing would not support the DoD however and the people in my office are of a mixed opinion on the subject. However, we are funded under contingency operational funds though I can find no language that the head of my agency has directed one way or the other that this is a contingency operation.

Ask the chief of your office, or your HCA. You can use the $1 Million threshold identified in FAR 2.101 under Simplified Acquisition Threshold if the head of your agency has determind that your work is in support of a contingency operation. Don't know? Ask...

The $1M threshold applies to "acquisitions of supplies or services that, as determined by the head of the agency, are to be used to support a contingency operation or to facilitate defense against or recovery from nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attack."

If your acquisition is not supporting a contingency operation, then you can't use the authority, notwithstanding the fact that you are located in a country where a contingency operation is being conducted.