I'm a Contract Specialist intern and i've been assigned a mission to find out if we can assign a Task Order to an expiring contract. The situation is this; we are looking to assign a task order to a BPA contract that expires in Feb 2010, but the task order will carry on past the expiration date. Is this possible, if not what are our options? I've looked extensively in the FAR (17.605, 52.217-9, 37.111) and it does not directly address my situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My Legal advisor told me about this website so I decided to give it a try. I only been in contracting for about two months and i'm trying to feel my way around so I can know what avenues I can use to arrive at a succesful conclusion to contracting procedures. Thanks

Duke38,

Since you are a newbie, let's clear up a couple of things as you are now in a professional career series (1102), and we need to act accordingly. First, task orders are not assigned for BPA's. For BPA's you assign call numbers for each action you issue against it. Second, a BPA is not a contract, per se. It's an agreement between the parties (government and contractor).

BPA's are simplified actions that fall under FAR Part 13, and are meant for repetitious items or services that normally fall under the simplified acquisition threshold. You will have to look at the terms and conditions written in the BPA to see if you can assign call numbers that continue after the BPA expires. I know I have some IDIQ contracts that have terms where you can write task orders against them before the contract expires, but the performance period cannot exceed one year past the expiration of the IDIQ contract.

I am very surprised that legal sent you to a web-site instead of giving you a legal opinion on the situation.

duke38 - Did you notice that you are the 1,000th registered user of this forum? CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Duke38,

Since you are a newbie, let's clear up a couple of things as you are now in a professional career series (1102), and we need to act accordingly. First, task orders are not assigned for BPA's. For BPA's you assign call numbers for each action you issue against it. Second, a BPA is not a contract, per se. It's an agreement between the parties (government and contractor).

BPA's are simplified actions that fall under FAR Part 13, and are meant for repetitious items or services that normally fall under the simplified acquisition threshold. You will have to look at the terms and conditions written in the BPA to see if you can assign call numbers that continue after the BPA expires. I know I have some IDIQ contracts that have terms where you can write task orders against them before the contract expires, but the performance period cannot exceed one year past the expiration of the IDIQ contract.

I am very surprised that legal sent you to a web-site instead of giving you a legal opinion on the situation.

MJ,

The BPA does not state that we can assign call numbers beyond the expiration date, so I was looking thru the FAR to see if there was a legal way to do this since it was not addressed in the BPA.

I have not contacted my legal team with this problem yet. I am using this wesite as a part of my research before I contact my legal team. Thanks so much for your help

I don't think you will find anything in the FAR. Do a search in this forum as I think this topic, or something very similar, was debated a while ago. Although I think this was concerning task orders against contracts.

Again, if the terms and conditions are not listed in the BPA, you should ask legal for an opinion.

Welcome to the life of an 1102!! Hope you enjoy it!

duke38,

What does the BPA say about this?

Duke - Another thought which you have probably considered but I have found that in this Forum all the details are not present in the initial post.

Another area you may need to address in the situation is funding. If the anticipated call against the BPA provides for delivery after the end of the fiscal year you may need to address funding matters and possibly bona fide needs.

Is the BPA established against a GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract in accordance with FAR 8.405-3, or is it a BPA established under FAR Part 13. If you don't know the answer, ask someone in your office who does.