Bidding Key Personnel

I know of no law or regulation against it. So if neither the contract nor the solicitation for the task order says you can't, then the answer to your question is yes.

But what if you win both task orders? Could the same person perform on both and satisfy the government's requirements? If the answer is no, then why would you propose the same person for both? And if the answer is no, then how do you think the government would react to your proposals?

As an add on to comments already in the thread you may want to consider agency supplements to the FAR that are promulgated as regulation that regard ?Key Personnel? and as Vern notes may be in your IDIQ contract or subsequent order. Many like the Dept of Energy (DEAR) 952.215-70 Key Personnel speak to ?diverting? a key person. One might be wise to indicate in a proposal that the key person will be working on multiple orders if that is your plan to make sure the agency does not believe you are ?diverting? after you get a order if such language is in your particular IDIQ and/or order.

We put a Key Personnel Substitution clause in all our contracts. If company desires to change out a person designated as Key, they must give us 30 days notice (granted if person leaving company and gives less than 30 days notice, they must give us as much as they get) and the substitute must have equal or better qualifications than person being replaced. As an evaluator, if I saw both proposals at same time (or closely together) I might wonder how you were going to have the guy work 2 full-time jobs so hopefully there's an explanation in the second proposal about how it's going to work

This is a little off topic but many contracting and program people don't understand how private industry works in proposing people. If a company has employees coming off existing jobs, it's really important to get them on new projects right away. So a company proposes them in proposals. Asssuming that companies win anywhere from 20% to maybe 50% of the procurements they propose on, that means they might have to propose the same person three times. But if they win two contracts and there's only that one person, something has to give. I think many COs don't understand this and immediately think it's "bait and switch."

We put a Key Personnel Substitution clause in all our contracts. If company desires to change out a person designated as Key, they must give us 30 days notice (granted if person leaving company and gives less than 30 days notice, they must give us as much as they get) and the substitute must have equal or better qualifications than person being replaced.

Why do you make them give you 30 days notice? That's ridiculous. Why should they have to give you any notice at all as long as they provide you with a qualified replacement? What if the employee just walks of the job without notice because he or she can't stand working under a bunch of bureaucrats?

Why do you make them give you 30 days notice? That's ridiculous. Why should they have to give you any notice at all as long as they provide you with a qualified replacement? What if the employee just walks of the job without notice because he or she can't stand working under a bunch of bureaucrats?

Vern - the 30 days is mostly for intracompany moves. If the person quits and gives less notice, then the company can only give us as much notice as they get. Language developed in response to vendors moving key personnel to different contract and not telling client until last week of work or having someone give notice and not inform client at all. Language only applies to those positions designated as Key Personnel - either by Govt in solicitation or additional positions proposed by vendor as part of proposal. And although we try to limit the key designation to just the truly key people, we have had vendors propose every position as key and then we make them live up to the restriction that they imposed upon themselves.

This is a little off topic but many contracting and program people don't understand how private industry works in proposing people.

Contractors also use economies of scale, especially for positions such as Program Managers. For example, the first contract actually takes 30 hours per week to perform (not 40 as a government estimate may reflect). A second, related job may only consume an additional 15 - 20 hours since the infrastructure and/or other variable costs/efforts wouldn't need to be replicated.

Vern - the 30 days is mostly for intracompany moves. If the person quits and gives less notice, then the company can only give us as much notice as they get. Language developed in response to vendors moving key personnel to different contract and not telling client until last week of work or having someone give notice and not inform client at all. Language only applies to those positions designated as Key Personnel - either by Govt in solicitation or additional positions proposed by vendor as part of proposal. And although we try to limit the key designation to just the truly key people, we have had vendors propose every position as key and then we make them live up to the restriction that they imposed upon themselves.

Why do you need a 30 day notice? What purpose does it serve? What's it for? What do you do with it?

This is a little off topic but many contracting and program people don't understand how private industry works in proposing people. If a company has employees coming off existing jobs, it's really important to get them on new projects right away. So a company proposes them in proposals. Asssuming that companies win anywhere from 20% to maybe 50% of the procurements they propose on, that means they might have to propose the same person three times. But if they win two contracts and there's only that one person, something has to give. I think many COs don't understand this and immediately think it's "bait and switch."

Exactly. We need to keep our people covered as much as possible. We can't count on winning every proposal we submit, thus we may include an individual as key on more than one competition. Not doing so could result in that individual potentially not having work. If by chance, said individual is key on more than one "winning" bid, then we need to find another key person with same or better qualifications.