What happens after you place a bid on a government contract

Additional influencing factors—the government-established competitive range

The government will, before discussions, establish a competitive range and document the decision and the rationale in a Pre-negotiation BCM. Why does the government do this? If it does not properly establish a competitive range the offerors improperly eliminated from the competitive range could file protests, the offerors could, in retrospect, revise or modify their offers to such an extent that their offers would have been the best value to the government.

The government may eliminate an offer from the competitive range without evaluating that offer's proposed cost/price if the Government determines that the offer is excessively or grossly deficient. That usually means that the offeror's technical proposal contains one or more deficiencies or failed to meet the material solicitation requirement or the stated mandatory requirements.

It would be wise to review the FAR clauses that cite the factors for evaluation.

As always, the contracting officer will look at past performance as an indicator/filter of how well you might or will perform on a solicitation. So if you mess up on a contract and say, "hey, it's a government contract, who cares," know that the next time you bid, they will be looking at what you did in the past.

Your past history as a contractor

How do does the government access risk on past history? This chart is out of the Army source Selection Manual. As you can see, they take a great deal of effort to look at your past history and how it might affect an award.

• Excellent: Essentially no doubt exists that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort based on past performance. Risk level: very low.
• Good: Little doubt exists that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort based on past performance. Risk level: low.
• Adequate: Some doubt exists that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort based on past performance. Risk level: moderate.
• Marginal: Significant doubt exists that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort based on past performance. Risk level: high.
• Poor: It is extremely doubtful that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort based on past performance. Risk level: very high.
• Unknown: The offeror has little or no relevant past performance upon which to base a meaningful performance risk prediction.

In addition, the Contracting Officer will also look at a comparison of price, cost, cost realism, and profit analyses.

• The price analysis involves evaluation of an offeror's price to determine if it is fair and reasonable. It always involves some sort of comparison with other prices, such as competing offers and previously proposed prices for similar items.
• The cost analysis is a review of the separate cost elements of the proposal to determine if the costs are in line with what they should be, assuming reasonable economy and efficiency.
• The cost realism analysis focuses on an independent evaluation of the specific elements of the offer to determine whether they are realistic, reflect a clear understanding of the requirements, and are consistent with the method of performance and materials described in the proposal.
• The profit/fee analysis is the process of examining whether the proposed profit or fee is reasonable in light of the associated risks.

The Contracting Officer is responsible for deciding if an offer is fair and reasonable and if a "prudent" person would pay the same for a product or service under a similar market condition. Most companies will never run up against this situation, but if you do, this will give you a taste of what they are looking for and also give you a link to where you can get more information.

Tip

Remember, information and intelligent bidding will bring you success, bidding off the cuff and not knowing your costs, if you can actually do the work, who you can partner with and many other factors will only lead you to wasting many hours bidding with no success.

Pre-award surveys assess your ability to fulfill a contract

The government's responsibility in evaluating a bid is to determine, first of all, the responsiveness of an offer to the solicitation. This is more of a technical process and consists of checking all the paperwork and making sure there are no unacceptable deviations. The government must then determine whether the proposed winner is responsible and capable enough to handle the contract.

To help make this determination, the government might perform what is called a Pre-Award Survey (PAS). The PAS is made in sufficient depth to assure that the proposed award winner has the ability to meet the requirements of the solicitation. It may involve a full government team coming out to check a company's capabilities first-hand, or it may entail nothing more than taking a look at the pertinent information about the company to determine if it is able to go ahead with the contract.

Tools to use

Among the Tools & Forms are:

• Standard Form 1403
• Standard Form 1404
• Standard Form 1405
• Standard Form 1406
• Standard Form 1407
• Standard Form 1408

All of these pertain to pre-award surveys. They are Adobe PDF (.pdf) files.

Preparing for the pre-award survey

If you are the proposed winner of a government contract, there are certain things you can do to prepare for the pre-award survey to help ensure a favorable outcome for your company. The following is a checklist you can follow:

• Select the person who will meet with the government survey team. This person should be empowered to speak for the company and should be completely familiar with the details of the solicitation and of your company's offer.
• If relevant, make available one or more technicians to answer questions.
• Identify any disparities that may exist between the solicitation and your company's offer that should be resolved during the initial meeting with the survey team.
• Think about how you can demonstrate actual technical capability, or the development of technical capability, on the proposed contract.
• Get your production plan ready and available for review by the survey team.
• Make sure your plant facilities and equipment are available and operable. If they are not, be prepared to demonstrate that they can be developed or acquired in time to meet proposed contract requirements.
• Be prepared to show that you can meet the transportation, packaging, packing and preservation conditions of the solicitation.
• If industrial security clearance is required under the proposed contract, be prepared to show it.
• Make sure that your labor resources have the proper skills or that personnel with the needed skills can be hired expeditiously.
• Gather and make available to the survey team documentation, such as previous government contracts or subcontracts or commercial orders, to demonstrate a past satisfactory performance record with regard to delivery, quality and finances.
• Look over your production plan and make sure that you can demonstrate a capability to meet contract schedules.
• Gather financial documentation for the team financial analyst, including the company's current profit and loss summary, balance sheet, cash flow chart and other pertinent financial information.
• Prepare a listing of available tools and equipment for the team production specialist.
• Make sure that plans are in place for vendor supplies and materials or subcontracts to assure that the final delivery schedule can be met. Make sure that these plans are verifiable.
• Review any technical data and publications that may be required under the proposed contract and make sure you understand them.
• If the contract is a type other than a firm-fixed price or if you have requested progress payments, prepare adequate accounting documentation for review by the audit agency representative of the team.
• Review your quality control program and make sure that it is workable and consistent with the quality requirements stated in the contract. Be prepared to go over the details with the survey team.
• If government-furnished equipment, property or material is involved in the proposed contract, make sure you have established procedures in accord with the regulation stated in the contract.
• Prepare any other information or data that might be pertinent in assisting the government team.

As you become more experienced in the government market, you will find that all this takes less and less time. As with anything new, there's a learning curve.

Work smart

What if you get turned down? There may be a "second bite of the apple" for you if your company is a small business and gets turned down on the Pre-Award Survey. If you can convince the Small Business Administration that you can do the work, the SBA could decide to back you and issue you another pre-award, known as a Certificate of Competency. The Certificate of Competency is like a bond and will allow you to receive the contract. If you're not sure how to go about applying for a Certificate of Competency, contact your local PTAC for assistance.

You've won the contract! What's next?

What happens next if your company is the one that is awarded the contract? After you have congratulated yourself, what should you be doing and thinking about? Simply put, it is now up to you to fulfill the requirements of the contract, whether it's to produce a product, provide a service or build a structure.

Although it is impossible to cover the infinite variety of situations that might be involved in any given contract, we can offer a checklist of the actions you need to take immediately upon receiving a contract. The items on the checklist may seem obvious to you, but most companies get into trouble simply because they fail to do the obvious.

Contract performance checklist

• Reread the contract. You probably hoped that you had heard the last of this, but here we go again. The first thing you should do upon being awarded a contract is to read, read, read the provisions. Recheck your delivery dates, packaging requirements, reports you may be required to submit, and delivery destination. Make sure you haven't missed something — let's hope you are not surprised at what you may find.
• Record important contacts. Look on the face of the contract and jot down the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the following contacts so you will have the information handy for on-going reference:
  • Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO)
  • Administrative Contracting Officer (ACO)
  • Paying office
  • Government Inspector (You should be contacted by this individual. This might be a local person who will work with you to get the contract completed. If it is a military contract, the local Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) should be a big help to you. Think of these people as part of your management team to help complete the contract.)
• Don't take unnecessary actions. If the PCO or the ACO directs you to take a specific action, you must do so. But don't act on anyone else's direction! If you do, you will be liable for any costs or consequences that may result. Only the PCO, ACO, Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) or the contract itself can authorize you to take any action.
• Resolve any questions. If you have any questions about what a specific provision means or if you find any inconsistencies in your contract, contact the Contracting Officer (CO) immediately and ask for a meeting or "post-award conference." Open the lines of communication and develop a good working relationship right away. If you are really new to the process, ask for all the assistance that the CO is willing to give you. There is no question that is too "dumb" or "embarrassing;" what is really embarrassing is not performing on the contract. Address any problem right away before it gets out of hand.
• Keep accurate, timely and well-documented records. Even in this paperless society, a paper trail is important. You have no case if you can't prove what was said and done. We have found that simple misunderstandings can easily degenerate into a "he said, she said" sort of situation where no one wins and the relationship with the government people becomes, shall we say, "touchy."
• Determine internal responsibilities. Make sure your people understand what is to be done and in what time frame. This will help ensure that everything goes smoothly and that delivery is made in accordance with the terms of the contract.
• Issue orders and plan production. Place any long lead items on contract immediately to ensure that there will be no holdup with production.
• Produce/provide the service. If everything was planned out properly, this part should go relatively smoothly. If not, don't forget to keep the Contracting Officer informed. If you see that delivery under the contract may be affected, seek an extension before the due date to avoid being delinquent.
• Review your quality control program. Make sure procedures are in place and are adequate to guarantee that the quality of the item will meet government requirements. If necessary, update your procedures and your manual.

Copy this checklist, and then put it and all other information in the work order or folder. If you miss something, this will make it easier to go back and make changes.