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Now you've made award, you've
established BPA's, now you have to notify the unsuccessful offerers.
The FAR requires that agencies provide timely notification to unsuccessful
schedule contactors, though there's no real definition as to what is considered
timely. So in that case we just recommend that you use your best
judgment. If requested by an unsuccessful
offerer, agencies must provide a brief explanation at the basis for the award
decision if the award of the BPA was based on factors other than price alone.
Note that full debriefs, as mentioned in FAR Part 15, they are not applicable,
nor are they required on schedule requirements. Recently, the FAR 8.404
also made it clear that protest procedures found in FAR Subpart 33.1 are
applicable to the establishment of BPA's against the schedule contracts.
Now price reductions. BPA's offer a great opportunity for greater discounts,
due to the potential volume of orders that will go through that BPA.
However, vendors are not required to offer these volume discounts.
FAR 8.405-4 requires agency's ordering activities to seek a price reduction when
the BPA exceeds the SAT. Of course, price reductions may be requested at any time
before placing an order or in conjunction with an annual BPA review, which I will go
into more detail later, in addition to establishing a BPA. Some reasons for
requesting price reductions include, say the CO is aware that the service or
supply is available elsewhere at a lower price or because they believe the order
is large enough to warrant a price reduction.
Now keep in mind even as we go through this that, yes, you are required to ask
for a price reduction when your BPA exceeds the SAT and yes, you can ask for
contracting officers - agencies can ask for a price reductions at any other
time, but a contractor is not obligated to provide these price reductions.
But there is an instance where you are required to ask for it and it's always
recommended that a CO asks for it. It can't hurt to ask, right?
Any additional discounts that are obtained under your Schedule BPA needs
to be clearly identified in the BPA. You can identify this discount in any
way that's appropriate to that BPA. You can do it as a percentage reduction of
the schedule price list or a completely new price list - reduced price list.
Schedule Contractors are not required to pass on to all schedule users a price
reduction that they extended to an individual ordering activity. So if
vendor Schedule Contractor A gives Agency B a price reduction that doesn't
mean they have to give Agency C, Agency D, Agency F that same price reduction.
Now what goes into a BPA? As a matter of best practice we recommend that you
make sure the following elements are addressed in the BPA. If it's a
multi-agency BPA, make sure you identify the participating agencies and their
estimated requirements at the time that the BPA is established. You should
address the BPA period of performance, the ordering frequency or the expected
ordering frequency, the delivery or performance period of that BPA.
If it's a single-agency BPA at the estimated requirements of that agency,
the delivery of performance locations of that BPA and invoicing procedures, such
as where to send invoices and what the terms are in as it applies to whether to
consolidate invoices or not. Now if you don't - if you can't tell
the contractor answers to these questions, for instance you don't know
how often orders are going to be placed or you don't know exact locations of
where task orders against that BPA will - where work will occur. That's fine.
You just make sure you address it. Say to be determined on each individual
order, but just make sure you address it, so both you and the BPA holder are
both on the same page and have the same expectations.
Okay. So that was what went into the BPA document itself. Now what goes in
the BPA file? The FAR has some minimum documentation requirements for BPA files
and all the ones you see on the screen are what's required. So the
documentation - the FAR listing include documentation supporting the number of
BPA's that you awarded. Basically single-award, your rationale
for doing a single-award verses a multiple-award. Lists of all schedule
contractors considered for that Schedule BPA or BPA's. Noting the contractor to
which the BPA was awarded. A description of the supplier service
covered by that BPA. The pricing that's awarded under that BPA. The basis of
the award decision; how did you determine which winner presented best
value by including your evaluation methodology and a rationale for any
trade offs and a price reasonableness determination for services that require
a statement of work. The BPA file also needs to include
evidence that the competitive procedures were followed. That's basically saying
show me how you posted your RFQ to eBuy or show me how you sent your RFQ to
enough vendors to where you got three quotes back. For single-award BPA's
that exceed $103 million, the agency head determination.
Now other documentation requirements include the rationale for authorizing
anything other than a performance based statement of work and the results of
annual reviews. Note that all scheduled BPA's must be reviewed annually.
Now it's critical for single-award BPA's, but it's still required of
multiple-award BPA's also and mostly to determine whether to extend the term -
the period of performance for your BPA.