Boof

You would need a warrant but the list of who can have a warrant varies by Agency policy. I do not think we have any ordering officers but we do have a few CORs that have $25K warrants to issue change orders.

Link only gets you to front page. I don't know the announcement number. I would love to see one, I never have at my Agency.

It takes quite a few hours to do it properly and so not with my workload which already has me working more hours than I should.

I think this is silly. The supervisor should encourage A to do his job and award the mod based on the previous mod it being a legal agreement between the Government and the contractor. However, he cannot be forced to do it so the supervisor could use his warrant (if he has one) or find another CO (maybe to sign it. He gets his chance to let A know what he thinks about the refusal at appraisal time. At my agency, the HCA has signed contract actions because the COs would not, but it wasn't over anything this simple.

I used to be able to write a beautiful contract in Microsoft Word that I was proud of. Then came our mandatory contract writing system that prints out a horrible document. The only way to get the SOW/PWS onto it is as an attachment. Forget about cut and pasting it into Section C or commercial item section 1. Only comes out as Adobe because the developers did not want to pay Microsoft licenses (my opinion anyway)so you cannot edit it except back in the inefficient system. We have the GAO, OIG and every other oversight agency telling us how to do our job. So what good is a how to handbook?

No because each call on a BPA has to be determined at the time of the call. At the time of the call they are not a small business.

If multiple award and the base contracts did not provide for a uniform or simplified selection process then a SSP should be written to spell out how the selection will be made and that process provided to the contractors in the solicitation (we call it a Task Order Request for Proposal (TORP). All awardees get fair opportunity unless we have grounds for a limited competition J&A. The source selection is conducted very close to an open market selection. However, please note that most of our task orders exceed $20M and can be protested (and are most of the time). Much litigation unfortunately.

Make a best value decision on using the FSS over going open market and then post the requirement on GSA EBuy to ensure that only one Schedule holder can fulfill the requirement. The open market vendor has never had standing with GAO in the past but change thier minds sometimes and hear the case anyway. Here is a twist. At my Agency a FSS order is considered an Interagency Agreement and a formal "Determination of Best Procurement Approach" must be approved by the HCA if the order is over $500K.

Seems like the headhunter solicitation should contain the known qualification list and be in accordance with the normal payment system for what is a common commercial service. If the contractors don't like the solicitation they should say so. I always thought it common that they only got paid for accepted candidates.

Your advice sounds right to me. I always insist on estimated hours for all options with the price being the total evaluated price in the source selection. After award, the hours are just what we said they were.... estimated hours.

Well that is so enlightening. I just realized why I was promoted. They needed me out of the way. Thanks so much all

My agency finds that embedding some personnel with high volume and high value customers helps with customer service and permits closer contract administration. However, you want those personnel assigned to the Central Office, supervised by the Central Office and thier work QC'd by the Central Office. This maintains independence from the program office and ensures procedures are followed. You will be under great stress if your boss is in the program office.

Provided the 217-8 clause was in the contract at award, then why would you need to do a J&A? The need for an extension is already anticipated and should have been priced (most contractors just use thier last option year pricing) before award. Local agency policy may want the reason documented but we don't do them at my agency.

Problem solved until January when we may be doing it all over again. Isn't this a lot of fun.

JP, Are you really asking: What commercial item clause addresses intellectual property? Or perhaps: What clauses should be added to a commercial item contract to protect intellectual property? Please clarify your question and perhaps give more info about what property you are trying to protect.

Directly related to how to evaluate our employees is how to ensure continuous improvement in customer support and contract quality. Does anyone have some nifty ideas their agency uses to constantly improve. We had an OIG audit and they told us we needed to figure out how to provide continuous improvement for the fee we charge. My job to put a plan together. Any help is appreciated.

MBrown, Personal services contracts - The agency must have an authorization from Congress for a PSC. Then the position is competed as such and a selection made from the candidates that provided proposals. I see FAR 37 does talk about a PSC contract with a company but we have always contracted with individuals. I have never heard of converting someone from third party contractor to PSC directly although I am sure it has been done, maybe by J&A for sole source. Just because the engineer is working in your office does not make them a PSC.

Joel, Just an aside. I was stationed in the UP of Michigan and spent many cold nights on Snow Control Detail tearing down Oshkosh brooms and replacing all the wire bristles. No fun for a desk jockey. Then there was the shovelling flight line lights at 35 below zero. Memories......

I read it as the current prime small business having a regular prime contract and now they are going to compete it on a IDIQ on which he does not hold a contract. He is a sub to a contractor on the IDIQ. Awayforward will have to clarify.

I do not see they have any grounds to protest. A protest has to ascert the Government did something wrong. The Government has a right to choose the re-compete vehicle. They might be better off complaining to the Agency small business office or Agency competition advocate about the Agency deciding to move the work from a small business to a Large business IDIQ holder. They might win some support from SB office if they are 8(a) or one of the other socioeconomic groups. I see no issue with their staying in play as a sub on the IDIQ task order proposal while protesting their loss of a chance to win a prime contract. I never hold a company fighting to keep its business in a bad light unless they lie about me.

Here is the website. http://www.wdol.gov/sca.aspx . Click on Selecting Wage Determinations to get drop downs.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks Vern and I found a copy of your extensive discussion of the issue on a March 2003 blog article. Also these are Aviation services and not Advisory and Assistance as defined in FAR 2.1.

I am sure this has been discussed on this forum before but I could not get the search engine to provide me the string. We want to award an IDIQ contract with four option years and 5 award term years (10 total). Our agency FAR supplement says our procurement executive must approve going over 5 years. We submitted a D&F for his approval like we have done several times before but this time his staff asked us to provide our authority for exceeding 5 years. The staffer who comes from a DoD background seemed to think that we need specific congressional authority to exceed 5 years I did not know we needed an authority beyond our own agency requirement to get the Procurement executive's approval. Is there any regulations or statutes that restrict multiple option year contracts to 5 years? Without a rule against it I would cite FAR part 1 that says if not prohibited we can do it? Am I off base?

FAR Part 8.4 still requires competition among schedule holders.