VA Junior CO

I apprecitate the time taken to explain this, even when it tries ones patience.

Thank you very much for this, this discussion is exactly what I needed to see to really understand how an IDIQ can be a multiple year contract. While it might be plainly clear to veteran contract officers, there is nothing in FAR part 16 that infers that an IDIQ can have a multiple year period. Point in fact, the definition in FAR 17.103 for multi-year contracting makes the following statement. The key distinguishing difference between multiyear contracts and multiple year contracts is that multi-year contracts, defined in the statutes cited at 17.101, buy more than 1 year?s requirement (of a product or service) without establishing and having to exercise an option for each program year after the first. Doesnt the above statement say. a multiple year contact requires the use of options? It has'nt been until seeing input from GAO or Cibinic & Nash that multiple year contracting takes on a different definition. At some point after fiscal closeout I am going to investigate what a no-year appropriation is.

Is there a salient difference between what we are talking about in regards to period and option years and Multi-year contracts? If this is the same thing, then the VAAR is the limiter for VA acquisitions in this instance. FAR states HCA as approving authority for Multi-Year contracts where the VAAR has the Secretary of the VA as the approving authority ,who in turn allows an HCA to auhtorize only contracts that do not require a legal or technical review (typically ~500,000)

FAR part 16.504(a)(4)(i) a solicitation for IDIQ must specify the period of the contract, including the number of options and the period for which the government may extend the contract under each option. If I understand correctly we are defining period as being longer than one year. I have always assumed that the "period" was defined as being no more than one year. Forgive me as I work this out as I am typing. I have discussed this with some of my experianced COs, and dont know of any VA CO's that have done this. And naturally we are fearful of things we don't understand like fire, magic etc.

I was hoping someone else did'dnt know how this would be done, but now it appears I am the only one FAR part 16.504(a)(4)(i) a solicitation for IDIQ must specify the period of the contarct, including the number of options and the period for which the government may extend the contract under each option. I would very much love to award a 5 year IDIQ and not worry about options, but I cannot justify it. Sorry to derail this thread, but the idea of this caught my attention.

Thank you for your responses, I do appreciate them.

Good afternoon. I have been having a debate with one of my senior CO's regarding contract types. She says there are 3 flavors of contracts 1. Fixed Price 2. Cost Reimbursement 3. Other contract types I can follow that line of thought as I have a nice chart that says just that on my wall. The rub comes in when I make the following statement "You can have a Fixed Price Requirements contract" or "An ID/IQ can be a Fixed Price Contract" I make my point based on the assumption that the rates in the schedule can be fixed, how much is used doesnt matter and is an acceptable variable in a fixed price ID/IQ. I am thinking, though I can not support this in the FAR, that you have 2 basic contract types, Fixed Price, and Cost Reimbursement - and that ID/IQ and Requirements can apply to either or as the task orders that result from the IDIQ or Requirements contract will be either FFP or Cost. I never win arguments with her, so im hoping for a rare victory, I just cant prove my point in the FAR since it doesnt say anywhere when discussing IDIQs a fixed price option. Any thoughts?

I am with VA so this might not be an option with the DOD. We have a prime vendor contract set up which covers milk and dairy and fruits and veggies. We have the ability to deviate from prime vendor in order to give contracts to small businesses, but can always fall back on the Prime Vendor which makes this requirement stop before it reaches my doorstep because the Dining Facilities order directly.