Don Mansfield's Blog
Don Mansfield on federal procurement.
Did the SBA Invalidate FAR 19.000(b)?
In Latvian Connection General Trading and Construction LLC, B-408633, September 18, 2013, the Comptroller General denied a protest of a solicitation issued by an Air Force unit in Oman for armored cable to be used at Thumrait Air Base, Oman. At issue was the Air Force’s decision
Don Mansfield · Jun 17, 2015
FAR 52.212-1 Tailored for SAP
I recently gave a course on simplified acquisition procedures where I was again confronted with the use of the provision at FAR 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors--Commercial Items in requests for quotations (RFQs) issued pursuant to FAR part 13. (We discussed this issue in the Wi
Don Mansfield · May 19, 2015
Army Contracting Command Guilty of Noncompliance with a Nonexistent Rule
In a recent DoD IG report, the Army Contracting Command was cited for its failure to perform "component assessments" on 23 contracts subject to the Buy American Act (see DoD IG Report No. 2015-026). The report states as follows: ACC contracting personnel did not complete componen
Don Mansfield · Dec 1, 2014
Section 1331 Authorities: A Primer
Section 1331 of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111-240) recognizes the significant opportunities that exist to increase small business participation on multiple award contracts and the ability of set-asides— the most powerful small business contracting tool—to unlock
Don Mansfield · Apr 9, 2014
Do You Have an OMB Control Number for that Past Performance Questionnaire?
In competitive acquisitions, it is common for solicitations to require offerors to conduct surveys of their past and present customers using standard questionnaires developed by the contracting office. Offerors are typically instructed to send the questionnaires to their customer
Don Mansfield · Mar 4, 2014
Myth-Information: A PWS is not a SOW
I have recently noticed an interesting phenomena regarding how the term "statement of work" is being used and understood in practice. If what many of my students are being taught in their contracting offices is any indication, "statement of work" (SOW) has come to mean a work sta
Don Mansfield · Dec 20, 2013
Should We Criticize GSA?
In a recent blog post, Steve Kelman took issue with GSA for the way they intend to evaluate past performance under the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) procurement (see “GSA is Saying What?"). Specifically, the evaluation scheme in the draft request for pr
Don Mansfield · May 21, 2013
Are Government Personnel Much Different Than Contractor Personnel?
This morning I read two different threads in the Wifcon forum. In the first thread, the discussion centered on late Government payments. (See “Significant Delays in voucher review/approval”). Some of the participants shared stories of how the Government does not consistently resp
Don Mansfield · Feb 15, 2013
The Incredible Shrinking P
I read a lot of rules—proposed rules, interim rules, final rules, second proposed rules, second interim rules, etc. In fact, I decided a year or so ago that I would read all new rules in the Federal Register that affect the FAR or DFARS (I’m only a few rules behind as of this wri
Don Mansfield · Oct 2, 2012
The Impending Exodus of "Experienced" Contracting Personnel: Crisis or Opportunity?
It seems that every few months we see a new article, report, or hear testimony predicting a mass exodus of "experienced" 1102s from the Federal workforce. Citing workforce data, the conclusion that is commonly drawn is that a "crisis" will result. If we just look at numbers it wo
Don Mansfield · Jan 20, 2012
Savvy or Unethical? Should the Federal Government be a Phantom Bidder in Reverse Auctions?
I recently heard from a contractor regarding an experience he had with reverse auctions. A federal agency was conducting a reverse auction using FedBid and he decided to compete (FedBid, Inc., provides a service whereby federal agencies can conduct reverse auctions). Although he
Don Mansfield · Jan 13, 2012
Small Business Programs Decision Table
NOTICE: The table originally posted contained an error in Step 4 of the HUBZone Program Decision Table. The entries for "Yes" and "No" were reversed, which implied that a HUBZone sole source was only permitted below the simplified acquisition threshold. In fact, the opposite is t
Don Mansfield · Jun 8, 2011
Sometimes Bigger is Better
An interesting aspect of the new socioeconomic parity rules issued in Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-50 (see 76 FR 14566) is that we now have some scenarios where a contractor is better off not being a small business concern. The Discussion and Analysis section of the Federal
Don Mansfield · Apr 7, 2011
DAR Council Interprets ?Contract? to Include Task and Delivery Orders
In one of my earlier blog entries, I inferred that the FAR Councils interpreted the definition of ?contract? at FAR 2.101 to include task and delivery orders based on their answer to a question about the applicability of TINA to task and delivery orders (see ?Commonly Understood?
Don Mansfield · Mar 10, 2011
An Easily Misunderstood Decision
In B&B Medical Services, Inc.; Rotech Healthcare, Inc.; B-404241, B-404241.2, (January 19, 2011), the Comptroller General held that the statutory nonmanufacturer rule does not apply to procurements set aside for Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) small business co
Don Mansfield · Mar 2, 2011
"Commonly Understood"? I Think Not.
I was recently perusing some of the recent final rules issued by the FAR Council when I came across a statement that I found interesting. In responding to a comment concerning the applicability of TINA to task and delivery orders, the FAR Councils stated that TINA applicability i
Don Mansfield · May 20, 2010
COs: Follow OMB?s Guidance at Your Peril
There has been a considerable amount of controversy over the last year or so in the area of small business programs. In International Program Group, Inc., (B?400278, B?400308, 19 September 2008) the Government Accountability Office (GAO) held that HUBZone set-asides took priority
Don Mansfield · Nov 30, 2009
Calculating Cost Impacts on CPAF Contracts: A Reasonable Assumption?
When taking a class on the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) last year, I came across a DCAA rule that made perfect sense to the auditors, but left some of the contracting officers scratching their heads. The rule deals with how to calculate the cost impact of a CAS noncompliance o
Don Mansfield · Sep 7, 2009
Magnetic Properties of Metals with Partially Filled 4f Electron Subshells
Did you ever wonder about the type of debate that goes on before an acquisition rule becomes final and is incorporated into the Federal Acquisition Regulation System? This information can be found in the Background section of the final rule when it appears in the Federal Register
Don Mansfield · Aug 20, 2009
Funding UCAs that Cross Fiscal Years
The end of the fiscal year is always a good time to start brush up on fiscal law?particularly the bona fide needs rule. Contracting offices may soon face questions of fiscal law that have already been answered in Volume I, Chapter 5, of Principles of Federal Appropriations Law (G
Don Mansfield · Aug 5, 2009
Myth-Information: Price Analysis is Always Required
There seems to be a closely held belief by some in the Federal contracting community that the FAR requires the contracting officer to perform a price analysis before awarding any contract. CON 111 used to contain the following statements: You must use price analysis to ensure tha
Don Mansfield · Jul 9, 2009
Small Business Order of Priority Table (HOLD THE PRESS!)
WARNING: OMB issued a memorandum on July 10 directing executive agencies to temporarily disregard the two GAO decisions discussed below until a full review can be conducted. Until such a review is conducted, do not use the table. Depending on your point of view, two recent GAO de
Don Mansfield · Jun 24, 2009
Inconsistent Decisions?
In TYBRIN Corporation, B-298364.6; B-298364.7, March 13,2007, the GAO held that an offeror's cost estimate that indicated that it would not perform 51% of the contract work on a small business set-aside rendered the offer unacceptable, even though the offeror did not explicitly t
Don Mansfield · Apr 21, 2009
GAO Issues Apology to DoD
In a remarkable statement issued today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) apologized to the Department of Defense for what it called "decades of unwarranted and unsubstantiated criticism." The admission came in the wake of the release of a March 2009 GAO report titled De
Don Mansfield · Apr 1, 2009
Myth-Information: Communication is 93% Nonverbal
The myth about communication being 93% nonverbal probably didn't start in the contracting field, but we are partly responsible for its spread. This is especially true when it comes to the subject of contract negotiation. The course manual for CON 100 used to state that communicat
Don Mansfield · Mar 10, 2009