GABE Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 Looking for laws, regulations or rulings in relation to creating multiple justifications to avoid proper authority approvals? More specific, as aware, the splitting of orders to circumvent competition is prohibited. Is the same regarding JFOCS, as referenced with part 6? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel hoffman Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 @GABEIt would be nice for everyone to know what you are referring to (See rule 16, for instance). Thank you in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABE Posted December 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 20 hours ago, joel hoffman said: @GABEIt would be nice for everyone to know what you are referring to (See rule 16, for instance). Thank you in advance. JOFOC-Justification For Other Than Full and Open Competition My apologies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C Culham Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 12 hours ago, GABE said: Looking for laws, regulations or rulings in relation to creating multiple justifications to avoid proper authority approvals? More specific, as aware, the splitting of orders to circumvent competition is prohibited. Is the same regarding JFOCS, as referenced with part 6? Splitting is splitting. But I am having trouble relating your questions to FAR part 6 and reference to JOFOC. Having looked at each of the exceptions what thresholds are applicable? Or stated another way FAR part 6 as applicable to acquisitions above the Simplified Acquisition Threshold do not have additional dollar thresholds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel hoffman Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 12 hours ago, GABE said: JFOC-Justification For Other Than Full and Open Competition My apologies. I thought that it might be the plural of “JFOC - Joint Future Operational Capability”. Please excuse my ignorance. 🤠 I would never had guessed JFOCS means the plural (“s”) for (“J”) justification (“F”) for (“O”) other than free and open (“C”) competition. 🤪 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formerfed Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 The standard terminology/abbreviation throughout the government is JOFOC or JOFOCs for plural. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General.Zhukov Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 Are you asking about splitting requirements? My definition: Having a known requirement that is larger than the applicable dollar thresholds and dividing that requirement with the intent to purposely circumvent those thresholds. In your case, the purpose of splitting requirements would be to lower the dollar value of action, and thereby lowering the non-competitive approval authority, right? You have a $1,000,000 sole-source contract needing approval by the Advocate for Competition. You do not want to seek AOC approval, so you split the requirement into two $500,000 contracts, now the Contracting Officer can approve the JOFOC, rather than the AOC. If splitting requirements is done in collusion with a contractor, or with the intent of directing the award, it is fraud, more precisely Fraudulent Sole Sourcing. Dust off your Contract Attorney's Deskbook, flip to Chapter 28 Procurement Fraud, and read all about it. If splitting requirements is done without collusion, for more prosaic reasons, it's not fraud per se, but it is...ethically questionable. The actual experts here on Wifcon will know more than me about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel hoffman Posted December 15, 2023 Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 4 hours ago, formerfed said: The standard terminology/abbreviation throughout the government is JOFOC or JOFOCs for plural. Yes, indeed. At any rate, Bob’s rule 16 says to avoid abbreviations (especially if they are incorrectly spelled). 🤗 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABE Posted December 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 1 hour ago, joel hoffman said: Yes, indeed. At any rate, Bob’s rule 16 says to avoid abbreviations (especially if they are incorrectly spelled). 🤗 I apologize in regards to spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABE Posted December 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 5 hours ago, General.Zhukov said: Are you asking about splitting requirements? My definition: Having a known requirement that is larger than the applicable dollar thresholds and dividing that requirement with the intent to purposely circumvent those thresholds. In your case, the purpose of splitting requirements would be to lower the dollar value of action, and thereby lowering the non-competitive approval authority, right? You have a $1,000,000 sole-source contract needing approval by the Advocate for Competition. You do not want to seek AOC approval, so you split the requirement into two $500,000 contracts, now the Contracting Officer can approve the JOFOC, rather than the AOC. If splitting requirements is done in collusion with a contractor, or with the intent of directing the award, it is fraud, more precisely Fraudulent Sole Sourcing. Dust off your Contract Attorney's Deskbook, flip to Chapter 28 Procurement Fraud, and read all about it. If splitting requirements is done without collusion, for more prosaic reasons, it's not fraud per se, but it is...ethically questionable. The actual experts here on Wifcon will know more than me about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABE Posted December 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2023 Greatly appreciate the response. Multiple JOFOCS corresponding to multiple awards to circumvent approvals for both, the JOFOCS and Awards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob7947 Posted December 16, 2023 Report Share Posted December 16, 2023 When I spelled out JOFOC I used the wrong acronym. I corrected it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABE Posted December 16, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2023 Bob- that was only due to my error. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob7947 Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 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.? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob7947 Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 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) Quote 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formerfed Posted December 17, 2023 Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 12 hours ago, bob7947 said: 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.? I couldn’t get in either. But I can see the 2022 version from the Library of Congress site https://www.loc.gov/item/2022676552/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oyster Posted December 28, 2023 Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 On 12/17/2023 at 9:56 AM, formerfed said: I couldn’t get in either. But I can see the 2022 version from the Library of Congress site https://www.loc.gov/item/2022676552/ The Army JAG School Deskbooks can be found here: Deskbooks & Handbooks - The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School - TJAGLCS (army.mil) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABE Posted December 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 Thank you for all the replies. I have one additional question, which is relevant to topic. Is there anything written (law, regulation) that would preclude the head of contracting agency to also be designated as the advocate for competition? Seems doing so may be deemed a conflict of interest? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C Culham Posted December 29, 2023 Report Share Posted December 29, 2023 13 hours ago, GABE said: Thank you for all the replies. I have one additional question, which is relevant to topic. Is there anything written (law, regulation) that would preclude the head of contracting agency to also be designated as the advocate for competition? Seems doing so may be deemed a conflict of interest? FAR 6.501 sets the sideboards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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