Can a contracting officer proceed with out thier concucrence on set-a-sides? Any referecnes about this at the FAR level, I know it will vary at the agency level. The short and sweet story is that my OSDBU feels like everthing should be a total small business set-a-side.

 

I found:

FAR 6.101 Policy.

      (a) 10 U.S.C.2304 and 41 U.S.C.3301 require, with certain limited exceptions (see subpart  6.2 and 6.3), that contracting officers shall promote and provide for full and open competition in soliciting offers and awarding Government contracts.

      (b) Contracting officers shall provide for full and open competition through use of the competitive procedure(s) contained in this subpart that are best suited to the circumstances of the contract action and consistent with the need to fulfill the Government’s requirements efficiently (10 U.S.C.2304 and 41 U.S.C.3301).

and this, my requiremnet is a multiple-award IDIQ and I want to do a partial.

FAR 19.502-4 Partial set-asides of multiple-award contracts.

      (a) In accordance with section 1331 of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 ( 15 U.S.C. 644(r)(1)), contracting officers may, at their discretion, set aside a portion or portions of a multiple-award contract, except for construction, for any of the small business concerns identified at 19.000(a)(3) when—

           (1) Market research indicates that a total set-aside is not appropriate (see 19.502-2);

           (2) The requirement can be divided into distinct portions;

           (3) The acquisition is not subject to simplified acquisition procedures;

           (4) Two or more responsible small business concerns are reasonably expected to submit an offer on the set-aside portion or portions of the acquisition that are competitive in terms of fair market prices, quality, and delivery; and

           (5) The specific program eligibility requirements identified in this part apply.

      (b) When the contracting officer determines that a requirement is to be partially set aside, the solicitation shall identify which portion or portions are set aside and not set aside.

      (c) The contracting officer shall specify in the solicitation how offers shall be submitted with regard to the set-aside and non-set-aside portions.

      (d) Offers received from concerns that do not qualify as small business concerns shall be considered nonresponsive and shall be rejected on the set-aside portion of partial set-asides. However, before rejecting an offer otherwise eligible for award because of questions concerning the size representation, an SBA determination must be obtained (see subpart  19.3

 

What does your market research indicate?

The requirement if for nationwide services, broken up in to Zones and requires businesses to have a facility clearance, out of the 4 zones only 1 zone had more than 1 small business that was deemed capable and had the required clearance.