Government Client List

                          The acquisition process is governed by regulations issued pursuant to the statutory authority given by the acquisition statutes. These regulations are included in
                          the Code of Federal Regulations ("CFR"), the omnibus listing of Government regulations, as Title 48. Chapter 1 of Title 48 is commonly called the Federal Acquisition
                          Regulation ("FAR"). The remaining chapters of Title 48 are supplements to the FAR for specific agencies.

As with any other regulation, the FAR has been promulgated through the legal regulatory process. This includes publication of proposed rules in the Federal Register and receipt of comments from the public before issuing the regulation. The FAR is considered to have the force and effect of law, thus Contracting Officers have no authority on their own to deviate from the FAR. The supplements to the FAR have been issued following the same process and must also be followed without deviation.

This does not mean that preparation of a contract is a simple matter of cut and paste. The regulations attempt to provide for every possible situation and acquisition from the purchase of paperclips to the acquisition of battleships. As a result, the FAR and its supplements permit a substantial variation. The Contracting Officer and the contractor must seek to achieve their sometimes conflicting goals while following the specific requirements of the regulations. As with any complex document (in book form, Title 48 of the CFR requires several shelves), the FAR and its supplements can be interpreted differently by different people. The reader is cautioned that, as stated above, this is a non-intuitive, complex subject, and the advice of someone knowledgeable in the field will often be required.

An acquisition plan may have numerous elements as listed in FAR 7.105; depending upon the estimated cost of the acquisition, these elements include:
(Statement of need and background) (Applicable conditions) (Cost) (Life cycle costs if applicable) (Capability or performance) (Delivery or performance requirements)
(Tradeoffs – expected consequences of tradeoffs among cost, capability and schedule) (Milestone chart depicting acquisition objectives) (Plan of action) (Potential sources)
(Competition plan) (Source selection procedures) (Acquisition considerations) (Potential Government furnished information, equipment or services) (Contract administration issues)
(Security and/or force protection considerations) (Budgeting and funding) (Product or service description) (Logistics considerations) (Environmental considerations)
(Participants in acquisition plan preparation (including source selection committee)

Special rules apply to service contracts - must be performance based. Performance based acquisition simply put is: WHAT, not HOW; MEASURABLE OUTCOMES.

FAR 37.102 and FAR Part 37.6 describes performance based methods, which are to be used for service contracts to the maximum extent practicable. FAR 37.601 has specific requirements for performance work statements (PWS) for service contracts requiring performance based standards. Agency supplements also require performance based acquisitions. See e.g., DFARS 237.170 Approval of contracts and task orders for services; DFARS 237.170-2 Approval requirements.

Performance Based Service Acquisition (PBSA) is a process and way of defining requirements that yields well written work statements that are measurable, outcome oriented – thus enforceable. Deming/Six SIGMA style quality assessments and process analysis very useful in writing performance work statements. PBSA and good contracting in general is highly dependent on doing your background research and market research. Would you go into battle without bothering to do recon and intelligence gathering? NO! Same principle applies in PBSA.

                                     Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (FASA) Pub. L. No. 103-355, 108 Stat. 3243; see also 10 U.S.C. § 2323 which contains language similar to FASA for the
                                     Department of Defense (DoD), NASA and the Coast Guard.
                                     In this legislation, Congress extended the affirmative action authority granted DoD by 10 U.S.C. § 2323 to all agencies of the federal government.

See 15 U.S.C. § 644 note. Regulations to implement that authority were delayed because of the decision in Adarand Constructors v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200 (1995). See 60 Fed. Reg. 48,258 (September 18, 1995). See 61 Fed. Reg. 26,042 (May 23, 1996) (proposed reforms to affirmative action in federal procurement) for the basis for the regulations to implement this provision of FASA. See 62 Fed. Reg. 25,648 (May 9, 1997) for government response to comments on the proposal, and 62 Fed. Reg. 25,786 (May 9, 1997) (proposed rules), 63 Fed. Reg. 35,719 (June 30, 1998) (interim rules), and 63 Fed. Reg. 36,120 (July 1, 1998) (interim rules), Federal Acquisition Regulation, Reform of Affirmative Action in Federal Procurement addressing the General Services Administration (GSA), NASA, and DoD.