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Possibly the most complete handbooks are from DoD.  There are others.  You may want to check NASA too.

Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) Handbook for Services Acquisition: Originally posted: December 2017 Last updated: February 2018.  

In accordance with Rule 17, this topic will be locked unless the OP reappears.

This topic is being closed due to no response from the OP, in accordance with . . .

17.  Original posters must not disappear after they post a question.  Disappearing makes it impossible to provide clarifications of the original post so that others may respond intelligently.  It is normal for the original poster to be asked for clarification.  The Orginal Poster has 5 calendar days after the original post to answer any questions.  After that, the Topic will be locked.

I will keep this topic open for a little time to see if the original poster comes back.  If not, I will delete the topic.

In two recent articles, Ralph Nash and Vern looked into whether the process of competitive negotiation (source selection) “works” to encourage firms to do business with the Government. See Our Competitive System:  Does It Work?, 36 NCRNL ¶ 70, and Postscript II: Our Competitive System, 38 NCRNL¶ 3. They think the process is cumbersome, takes too long, and is too expensive. In Postscript II, they argued that the competitive system (rules and procedures) is badly designed and maladapted to present circumstances. In this article, they want to show, by way of example, that the system is worse when the bad design is poorly executed.

See POSTSCRIPT III: OUR COMPETITIVE SYSTEM by Vernon J. Edwards.

This bill was introduced on January 18, 2024.  Unfortunately, the bill hasn't been posted yet.  That is why you don't see it yet.  It should be posted by the end of the week.  Check here.

Thanks Retread.  Quite often all an agency needs is to be reminded.

It is now more than half way through the month of January 2024 and the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) has not checked in, paid for itself, or something or other.  This is not out of the ordinary for a U. S. government site.  Many of the government sites that I use to post contracting information have not issued anything since December 2023 or earlier than that.

Here is what I currently get when I try to access the ASBCA.

If you find the ASBCA, please let me know by posting it here.  Thankyou.

I was late in approving this account.   Could anyone help the original poster?

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(a) Sealed bids. (See part  14 for procedures.) Contracting officers shall solicit sealed bids if-

(1) Time permits the solicitation, submission, and evaluation of sealed bids;

(2) The award will be made on the basis of price and other price-related factors;

(3) It is not necessary to conduct discussions with the responding offerors about their bids; and

(4) There is a reasonable expectation of receiving more than one sealed bid.

Jamaal:

I remember trying to find the first instance of that line being used in the FAR, FPR or ASPR.  If I remember correctly, it was a cut and paste job from the predecessors of the FAR to the FAR.  

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Superior alleges that this procurement must be trashed and started over because the Army’s contracting officer botched a required unbalanced-pricing analysis.

I'm running late and I haven't had a chance to read this protest.  If you have time, give it a try.  Superior Waste Management v U. S., No. 23-1319C, January 8, 2024.

This topic is closed but a poster pointed this out.

https://www.wbdg.org/ffc/dod/unified-facilities-guide-specifications-ufgs

4 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

As I will demonstrate next month in a follow-up to the article Bob has posted here, no grandiose "renaissance" will improve the competitive system until working level folks focus on what's happening closer to home. Don't expect anything from the high-level folks. Every majorr reform has failed, including, as you will see, commercial items (products and services).

By the way, I am in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, for the 2024 annual 25-hour Moby Dick Marathon Reading. We set sail and the First Watch begins Saturday, at 12:00pm, and the Sixth (and final) Watch ends at 1:00pm on Sunday. People have come from all over to pay tribute to Herman Melville's great masterpiece. I am scheduled to read (with a big magnifying glass) during the Third Watch, at about 11:00pm on Saturday. I made it through the who thing without sleeping during last year's Marathon, and I I plan to do it again. And then the great shroud of the sea will roll on until next year.

"It is not down on any map; true places never are."

It may not be a Perfect Storm but your reading could be during a Nor'easter if the storm forms properly.  If it forms, I hope it doesn't match The Storm of the Century.  (I can't help myself.)

7 hours ago, Jamaal Valentine said:

Defense Acquisition University offers “a generalized order of events in the acquisition contracting process.” It looks more like an island-hopping campaign through FAR.

Click here: Contracting Subway Map

Also, the Department of the Army uses a similar tool called Contracting Compass. It doesn’t indicate a chronological arrangement to FAR either.

Hopefully these tools will be useful to some readers. Thanks for the participation!

Comparing the subway (from the article) as "a generalized order of events in the acquisition contracting process" is a terrible idea.  I still remember Metro Center in the D. C. Metro.  Three levels of crazies running up the steps and down the steps to meet in the middle and running into each other while trying to squeeze into an open subway door before it closed.  It was always a near death experience.

Over the  years, I have used the FAR's order to set up pages on this site.  That hasn't been easy all the time.  However, I wasn't using it to manage actions within the contracting process.  That may be more troubling.

After about 50 years, there is no single Federal Acquisition Regulation nor System.  As Vern and I have discussed here there is a Defense Contracting Regulation, Other Agency Contracting Regulations, and the "Balkanized" Agency Contracting Regulations, eg., FAA.  I used Balkanized from Nash and Cibinic.

I am in the process of seting up Wifcon.com's analysys of the NDAA for FY 2024--the "annual congressional perfections" to what is referred to as the FAR.  I'll probably be done by this weekend.  There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of congressional perfections added to the FAR System.  I've got some good news.  There are less new requirements in Title VIII.  However, there are more "Legislative Proposals Not Adopted" than before.  The NDAA became law just days ago.  Apparently, the "perfectors" wanted to get home and couldn't find places in time for all the junk (LPNAs).

Section 802 is "Modification of truthful cost or pricing data submissions and report."  I guess there is always room for congressional perfection.

Please read:  POSTSCRIPT II:  Our Competitive System by Vernon J. Edwards

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For many years Government agencies have identified their requirements in great detail, written a specification or work statement laying them out, prepared a Request for Proposals, and conducted a head-to-head competition to select the winning contractor. The companies that have regularly participated in this process have adapted by creating dedicated proposal preparation teams and creating the numerous internal systems required to meet all of the requirements of the RFP. They also have become accustomed to staying prepared to commence work a year or more after they have submitted their proposal if they win the competition.

What commercial company would participate in this type of competition? The only counterpart we can think of in the commercial world is the design-bid-build model used in procuring commercial construction projects but, even there, many owners have gone to the design-build model. But commercial companies selling products or services are not geared up for this process and would be ill-advised to spend their money in an attempt to enter such a competition. As best we can tell, most commercial companies have decided not to play this game.

By Irvin Gray, JD, MBA, LLM, CPCM, CFCM, CCCM and

Jamaal Valentine, MBA, Deputy Chief of Compliance and Oversight for the National Guard Bureau, Directorate of Acquisitions.

This article examines a Government Accountability Office bid protest filed by a small business applying to the U.S. Small Business Administration 8(a) Business Development program whose proposal was excluded from consideration.

Please Read:  Adequate Accounting System for Flexibly Priced Contracts – Who Determines Adequacy?

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This article appeared in the October 2023 issue of Contract Management magazine, published by the National Contract Management Association. Used with permission.

Daniel E. Schoeni,  U.S. Air Force JAG, Corps 

A volume on the ethical dilemmas in the defense industry would be incomplete without a chapter on defense offsets. Offsets are a prominent feature of an industry whose character is increasingly defined by its dependence on exports. In the post-Cold War business environment, which is definitely a buyer’s market, offsets are here to stay. Understanding them is thus an essential task. Such an understanding would enable policymakers to identify or perhaps to mitigate the associated dangers, including the corruption risks and other ethical perils outlined in this chapter.

Please read:  Some Ethical Dimensions of Defense Offset

Topic locked in accordance to Rule 17.

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17.  Original posters must not disappear after they post a question.  Disappearing makes it impossible to provide clarifications of the original post so that others may respond intelligently.  It is normal for the original poster to be asked for clarification.  The Orginal Poster has 5 calendar days after the original post to answer any questions.  After that, the Topic will be locked.

I was trying to help GABE in his request about splitting purchases and found the following report from 2014.

FEDERAL CONTRACTING:  Noncompetitive Contracts Based on Urgency Need Additional Oversight, (p. 35)

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Air Force officials observed that contracting officers were splitting requirements across multiple justifications at lower approval thresholds, which reduced oversight by higher level approving officials. The Navy has a similar policy in place and DLA officials told us they are planning to implement a similar process. The Army, which has added increased scrutiny of justifications particularly for urgency awards as one its goals for improving competition, is in the process of revising its guidance for preparing justifications to include a process similar to that of the Air Force.

The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School.  (TJAGLCS)

I've been trying to find the online Deskbook.  All I'm getting is a dead site.  Has the Judge Advocate site moved to another url or is it unavailable due to maintenance, etc.?  

When I spelled out JOFOC I used the wrong acronym.  I corrected it now.

Here is a letter from Senator Warren and Congressman John Garamendi about contract pricing.

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Unfortunately, the government’s left hand did not know what its right hand was doing.  Senior Judge Bruggink.  (p. 9, Court of Federal Claims opinion on 4DD Holdings, LLC and T4 Data Group, LLC.

This COFC opinion involves "a software developer’s claim for copyright infringement."  It involves actions by contracting officers and contracting officer's technical representatives.

Vern:

I have one comment.  You suggest

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CO decisions on such claims would be appealable to the cognizant board of contract appeals or to the COFC. 

I suggest that the CO decision get one oversight appeal and that be limited to the appropriate board of contract appeals.  You get the COFC out of the protest process.  Don't let them back in at the end.  With the COFC you get the CAFC and SCOTUS.