Term Paper on "Source Selection"

Term Paper 7 pages (2455 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Government Procurement process by which the agency selects a contractor out of a field of offerors. Each step of the procedure was prescribed by Congress through various laws passed in response to repeated instances of corruption in the Government Procurement Process: Truth in Negotiations Act, Competition in Contracting Act, Procurement Integrity Act, Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, and Federal Acquisition Reform Act.

The Source Selection process is designed to ensure transparency, fair competition, and sound decision-making from the agency.

It seeks to achieve this through highly formalized sub-procedures (stages):

Acquisition Planning Stage -- An acquisition team is established to define the requirements for the project using market research. The team then determines the acquisition strategy, prioritizing price and non-price factors. The team then issues a Request for Proposal to the pool of bidders.

Request for Proposal Stage -- After the RFP is issued, bidders can formally request answers and clarifications. These questions and answers are provided to all bidders, and technical amendments are issued to bidders if necessary.

3. Proposal Submission Stage -- The bidders submit their proposals.

4. 1st Proposal Evaluation Stage -- The proposals are given separate technical and price evaluations. The technical evaluation is done by a Technical Evaluation Board. The price proposal can be done by a Price Evaluation Board, but is often done by the Source Selection Board.

5. Establish the Competitive Range Stage -- Based on the principle of "efficient competition,"a contracting officer limits the number of proposals to the greatest number consistent with an efficient evaluation process. Those offerors eliminated from competition are promptly notified in writing, and the basis must be given on why they were excluded.

They may also receive a pre-award debriefing.

6. Negotiation Stage -- The evaluation team may meet with bidders in the competitive range to discuss alterations to the proposal. Discussions include bargaining over price, schedule, technical requirements, type of contract, etc.

All proposal deficiencies are identified to the offeror and the offeror is given a reasonable time to make proposal revisions.

7. 2nd Proposal Evaluation Stage - The proposals are given separate technical and price evaluations. The Source Selection Board reviews the technical evaluation factors against the price and justifies any tradeoffs to the Source Selection authority on the "Best Value" to the government for the award.

8. Award Contract Stage -- The Source Selection Authority may accept, reject or ask the Source Selection Board to better justify the tradeoffs. After the Source Selection Authority accepts, they make a selection and the Contracting Officer awards the contract.

9. Bid Protest Stage -- Interested parties may challenge the Source Selection Authority's selection.

Bid protests may delay the performance of the contract.

10. Contract Performance Stage -- The bidder begins performance according to the proposal.

Thesis: To prevent costly bid protests, agencies should focus more on compliance than defense, as diligent compliance in itself will reduce opportunities for reasonable challenges. Aside from compliance, Agencies should be proactive in anticipating and neutralizing grounds for bid protests from unsuccessful offerors and bidders. In addition, Agencies should be supportive and conciliatory towards unsuccessful offerors and bidders to allay lingering suspicion and resentment, as resentment itself is enough to motivate a bid protest.

Debriefing Requirements

After the final source selection decision, the agency must give timely notice of their decision to eliminated offerors within 3 days of the decision. The eliminated offerors are also entitled to a debriefing conference, which the agency must provide within five days after receipt of request.

The debriefing must include: 1) An evaluation of the significant weak or deficient factors in the offeror's proposal; 2) The overall evaluated cost and technical ratings of both successful and unsuccessful offers; 3) The overall ranking of all offerors, when a ranking has been developed; 4) A summary of the rationale for award.

Pre-Award Debriefings

When a contracting officer excludes an offeror who feels that he/she submitted a competitive proposal from the competitive range, that offeror may request in writing a Pre-Award Debriefing from the contracting officer. The Pre-Award Debriefings must include: 1) The executive agency's evaluation of the significant elements in the offeror's proposal; 2) A summary of the rationale for the offeror's exclusion; 3) An answer to relevant questions posed by the debriefed offeror as to whether source selection procedures set forth in the solicitation, applicable regulations, and other applicable authorities were followed by the executive agency.

However, the debriefing may not include the number or identity of other offerors or information about the content, ranking, or evaluation of other offerors' proposals.

Best Value Acquisitions

In 1995, FAR removed the requirement that cost-reimbursement contracts be awarded on the basis of lowest proposed cost, lowest proposed fee, or lowest proposed cost plus fee.

This change allowed agencies the flexibility to select higher-cost bids instead of just being required to choose the cheapest proposal, which often entailed a lower-quality project. Agencies which choose to award a contract to a company offering higher quality at a higher cost would be making a Best Value Acquisition, which FAR defines as "the expected outcome of an acquisition that, in the agency's estimation, provides the greatest overall benefit in response to its requirements."

FAR requires such agencies to prove Best Value by documenting the rationale for the business judgments and trade-offs made, including the benefits associated with the additional costs.

Best Value Tradeoff Analysis Compliance

The source selection authority is responsible for independently determining whether non-cost advantages are worth the cost/price that might be associated with a higher rated proposal. It is based on his "rational judgment of the significance of that difference."

However, require that the SSA exercise reasonable business judgment in selecting the offeror for contract award. The SSA must document these cost/technical tradeoff judgments with detailed narrative explaining the relevant facts and supporting rationale even if the selected proposal has a superior technical or non-cost rating

In order to make a procedurally sound, defensible Best Value Tradeoff analysis, it is useful to remember this set of guiding principles.

1. Use best value when it is essential to evaluate and compare factors in addition to cost in order to identify and select the most advantageous offer.

2. Always include cost or price as an evaluation factor.

3. Always include the offerors' relevant past performance as an evaluation factor unless it would clearly serve no useful purpose.

4. Structure evaluation criteria and their relative order of importance to clearly reflect the government's need and facilitate preparation of proposals that best satisfy that need.

5. Limit evaluation criteria to those areas which will reveal substantive differences or risk levels among competing offers.

6. Request only the information needed to evaluate proposals against the evaluation criteria. Never ask for information you do not intend to evaluate.

7. Ensure consistency among the objectives of the acquisition, the contracting strategy, the plan for selecting a source, the solicitation, and the evaluation and selection.

8. Ensure discussions are meaningful by identifying to the offeror all deficiencies and significant weaknesses in the proposal, including any weaknesses that when accumulated, have a significant adverse impact on a proposal's overall rating.

9. Ensure the best value decision:

Is based on a comparative analysis of the proposals;

Is consistent with stated evaluation criteria;

Considers whether or not perceived benefits are worth any price premium.

10. Foster a pre-solicitation dialog with industry to:

Ensure a mutual understanding of the government's need and industry's capabilities,

Minimize inclusion of non-value added requirements, and Promote a more effective best value process.

Bid Protests Background

Due to the highly publicized abuses of the Government Procurement process, Congress decided to create a check on the considerable authority that agencies exercise in select contractors.

Congress created the bid protest, a legal mechanism where interested parties could challenge the agency's Source Selection decision not only to the agency itself, but also to an independent body outside of the agency: the Government Accountability Office.

Protests submitted to the GAO receive an automatic stay of performance.

Bid Protest Rules

According to the Government Accountability Office, "A bid protest is a challenge to the award or proposed award of a contract for procurement of goods and services or a challenge to the terms of a solicitation for such a contract."

Only "interested parties" may file protests, which means an actual or prospective bidder or offeror whose direct economic interest would be affected by the award of a contract or by the failure to award a contract.

When the bid protest is directed at the agency's evaluation of proposals or award of contracts, the offeror would only be an "interested party" if he is potentially in line for the award if the protest were sustained.

Thus, a party which had no chance of receiving the award would not be an "interested party," no matter how unfairly that party was treated.

Preparing a response to a complaint, no matter how weak, is costly for the agency. Unless the protest is dismissed because it is procedurally or substantively defective, the agency is required to file a… READ MORE

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