Federal Acquisition Regulations

Federal Acquisition Regulations

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Introduction

For the purposes of awarding competitive contracts for both the government and the organization in the cases of proposal submission and proposal consideration the Federal Acquisition Regulations provides policies and procedures for negotiations. The policies and regulations as well provide measures for awarding the contracts as well as the termination of the agency services and their functions. The recommendation for bidding and determination of the entire procedure involves the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as well as U.S Federal Court to hear the claims for those procuring agency services. The cases of violation of procurement process may be protested under the stipulated legislations and regulations to establish the issues protested and therefore, determination of the awarding or cancellation of the process to be arrived. The bid protest usually by the interested parties aims at providing amicable solutions to procuring processes unlike the past centuries thus giving room for quicker hearing especially where the protests is less formal and aims to avoidance expensive hearing venues (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2013).

Details of FAR part 15

The entire aim of the Federal Acquisition Regulations part 15 is to come up with adequate information pertaining to the whole process of acquiring competitive procurement procedures through offering alternative choices to help in decision making purposes and evaluation measures. Comparing of available choices is really explained in details therefore acquiring of the best procurement processes. The contracting personnel tend to be objective and able to work within the time frame through incorporation of the desired technological services and assistance. Details of proposal solicitation are outlined in this part at the request of the contracting officers after thorough negotiations have taken place (McRae & Weijer, 2008).

The contracting type is well explained in proper consideration of the and the entire risk involved is among the activities determined by these part and the consideration of the parties in the contract and the government as well. This aims at acquiring the best procurement service agent and the Government Accountable officer should take must of the consideration in the process. The details of the sources of selections remain the paramount activity as the officers involved ought to make proper consultation among its members to increase the competitiveness of the agency services delivery. Contracting and evaluation personnel is guided to induce proper coordination activities among the staffs involved so as to achieve well integrated program team players to achieve critical procurement actions after expertise consultations (Dodaro,2014).

Through this procedure the proposal contracting and awarding of the procurement process will achieve its competitive nature and as regarded by FAR part 15. GAO has over the time been regarded as the system with comparative informal involving the contacting awarding and desired measure to curb and control the arising protests after the negotiations have already taken effect. The key determination is to achieve the desired model for submission of completed proposal details to ensure healthy competition for the basis of contracting functions and technical approach by the entire management planning with adequate and required procuring experiences. The processes of evaluation are as well taken into consideration to all competitors to avoid the cases of some members feeling disadvantaged by the set rules and policies as well (McRae & Weijer, 2008).

Occurrence of the protest

The protests may occur in the event where the evaluation factors are not limited in their overall nature and the information provided is not limited to suit the competitors as well. Therefore, provision of required and necessary information ought to be provided to reduce the risks of protests and by the competitors forwarding the proposal with the sole aim of being awarded the procurement of agency services with proper negotiations with Accountable officer involved in the evaluation processes. Lack of proper following of part 15 process as regulated by the Federal Acquisition Regulations may compromise the competitive nature of the entire process therefore triggering protest among the willing members to be awarded the contracts. In event where there is an unrealistic source of the part 15 is likely to potentially increase the protests, and failures by the involved officers not properly soliciting proposal information in proposal evaluation phase (Dodaro, 2014)

FAR Part 15 regulations that allows the protest.

The part provides a clause where the members are not satisfied with GAO decisions can opted for protest to the Federal court where the protesters may file a case appealing the decision arrived by the body and term the procurement as abusive in nature and subsequent failure to achieve the arbitrary discretions as per the expected regulations of the Government Accountable Officer. The reconsideration of the decisions is therefore, expected to be conducted within ten calendar days or earlier. Furthermore, if the GAO finds that agency violated procurement law under part 15 of Federal Acquisitions and Regulations requirements it mandates protest and any other event where the agency beyond reasonable doubts proves that agency did not entirely implement the recommendation of the GAO thus allows protest to take place calling for constitutional execution and implementations of due to separation of power doctrine to be achieved and respected (McRae & Weijer, 2008).

Similar cases whereby the contract award was protested

There have been various cases where the contracts awarded have been protested as per the requirement of the FAR part 15 as it counts the entries of contracts awarded and challenged either by as a single or multiple parties involved in the process of contracting awarding processes. The cases were challenged by the GOA as the jurisdiction over the tasks involved was not well involved or the entire procedures and policies were not followed. The cases involved protests over the cost claims and entire process of request consideration by the officers. The protesters involved voluntary agency action as well as the tasks involved improper procurement services delivery or indefinite delivery over the quantity of the contract involved by the various parties involved in the process (Zoellner, 1990).

The examples of the cases include; Tipton Textile Rental where the contracting officer gave a misrepresentation of the business information about the size of the business therefore made the representation improper to the contracting officers and thus the vendor was confused by the layout of the business functions representation and the contracting officers retrieval of the central contractor registry listing for a firm with a different name thus led to giving of wrong information about the entire functions of the business as a whole. These form contracts was protested as the information given was misleading between the parties involved (Zoellner, 1990).

TriWest Healthcare Alliance as well its contract was protested as the agency misevaluated proposal by making unreasonable selection decision. After investigation and proper process of record evaluation of the company indicated that the evaluation sources was reasonable and in line with terms for solicitation and application of proper procurement laws and regulations. Protest alleging that the agency evaluation of the protester`s was deemed unreasonable ignored information. The protest was denied as the protesters failed to demonstrate that the information was relevant (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2013).

On cost reimbursement contract the ITT Corporation protested that the agency misevaluated proposal for cost reimbursement contract was sustained where the record showed that there was no logical connection between the agency technical evaluation and its most probable cost evaluation and there was no information in the record to explain the discrepancies between the technical and cost evaluation (Zoellner, 1990).

Conclusion

For appropriate contract awarding and determination on the submission of the proposal by various parties proper procedures and policies ought to be regarded. In event where proper proposal evaluation is concerned there would lead to reduced protest based on dissatisfaction by different parties and increased competitive awarding of contracts by the government and non-government organizations (McRae & Weijer,2008).

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REFERENCES

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2013). Choice Reviews Online, 50(11), 50-5961-50-5961. doi:10.5860/choice.50-5961

McRae, A., & Weijer, C. (2008). U.S. Federal Regulations for Emergency Research: A Practical Guide and Commentary. Academic Emergency Medicine, 15(1), 88-97. doi:10.1111/j.1553-2712.2007.00001.x

Zoellner, A. (1990). Code of Federal Regulations Index 1989, covering 1989 regulations. Government Publications Review, 17(2), 175-176. doi:10.1016/0277-9390(90)90102-j

Dodaro, G. L. (2014). The work of the U.S. Government Accountability Office on contemporary issues. Research in Accounting Regulation, 26(1), 132-141. doi:10.1016/j.racreg.2014.02.014