Disclaimer - I am writing this post in direct response to a conversation I just had with a client. He was absolutely certain all federal contracts are issued via full and open competition. I am about to show why that is not true.
Please understand, I will circle back to this flowchart and these sections and provide a more lucid, structured description of what it all means. This post is simply a response to the referenced conversation.
Here is how a typical government acquisition happens.
All the pink categories comprise the "Acquisition Planning" stage. It's during this stage of acquisition development that decisions are made about small business inclusion, source availability, statement of work, and whether or not the acquisition is going to be posted for full and open competition.
At any time during the Acquisition Planning stage, the parties responsible for forming the acquisition may come to the conclusion that there were not enough viable commercial firms to justify a full and open competition procurement.
So, what do they do? They Sole Source the contract.
Go to www.fbo.gov (this is where most people believe all contracts are competed), and choose the Notice Type "Justification and Approval (J&A)":
You'll notice as you click through those individual notices a common, recurring theme -
FAR 6.302-1 - Only one responsible source (except brand name)
This means the team in charge of deciding how to procure these products/services determined (through Market Research) that there was only one responsible source, and they are thus justified in awarding this opportunity as a Sole Source contract to the vendor named.
Sure would be nice to be on the "list" of Sole Source contractors, wouldn't it?
I can help you learn the best practices for positioning your company to be in position to compete for these opportunities during the Acquisition Planning stages.
Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering how the federal government can say "all solicitations over $25,000 are posted for full and open competition on FedBizOpps", it's because all solicitations are - the key is that not all acquisitions turn into solicitations...see that step right before Issue Solicitation / FedBizOpps - it's called Select Procurement Method. If the procurement method is not "Solicitation", then there is no requirement for full and open competition.
We'll cover more of this flowchart as I continue to write...just wanted to post this in response to a 15-year contractor that recently told me I was "misinforming people".
Add a comment