5 hours ago, joel hoffman said:

Those problems weren’t due to the FAR. They often didn’t understand that they could bargain. They also simply didn’t know how to evaluate pricing or find out what caused high pricing - problems with our requirements? Contingencies?, etc. Some had no clue how to negotiate mutually acceptable solutions. As a result, they either simply asked for more funds to award and/or resorted to correcting undesirable aspects of proposals (e.g., design-build) by change order. Some didn’t use available technical or pricing resources during discussions. The problems were systematic and widespread.

From what I’ve seen in either leading or providing support to teams reviewing the contracting functions at perhaps 20 offices, the problem you describe at USACE is widespread. But I need to qualify this statement by saying the 20 or so reviews were done at requests of senior agency personnel (SPE, CAO, CFO, Assistant Secretary, etc.) who likely suspected problems and needed verification that issues indeed exists. In any event, multiple interviews with program offices disclosed several issues - contracting personnel didn’t provide much guidance in preparing source selection plans or assistance with evaluations, contracting personnel tried to avoid discussions, and contracting personnel said to hold off making changes to technical issues until after contract award to the successful offeror. In addition, program office staff were requested to conduct price analysis instead of the contract specialist using program knowledge of the marketplace.

4 hours ago, formerfed said:

From what I’ve seen in either leading or providing support to teams reviewing the contracting functions at perhaps 20 offices, the problem you describe at USACE is widespread. But I need to qualify this statement by saying the 20 or so reviews were done at requests of senior agency personnel (SPE, SAO, CFO, Assistant Secretary, etc.) who likely suspected problems and needed verification that issues indeed exists. In any event, multiple interviews with program offices disclosed several issues - contracting personnel didn’t provide much guidance in preparing source selection plans or assistance with evaluations, contracting personnel tried to avoid discussions, and contracting personnel said to hold off making changes to technical issues until after contract award to the successful offeror. In addition, program office staff were requested to conduct price analysis instead of the contract specialist using program knowledge of the marketplace.

Sounds familiar, alright…

I loved evaluating competitive and sole source technical and price offers, preparing for and conducting “discussions” (YES - negotiating) and mutually resolving both technical and pricing issues.