Overview
FAR 3.103 establishes the requirements for the "Certificate of Independent Price Determination," which ensures that offerors develop their bid prices independently without collusion or communication with competitors. It prescribes when the provision must be included in solicitations and outlines the procedures for evaluating, rejecting, or reporting suspicious certifications.
Key Rules
- Prescription: The provision at FAR 52.203-2 is mandatory for firm-fixed-price or fixed-price with economic price adjustment solicitations, unless the acquisition uses Simplified Acquisition Procedures (Part 13), involves regulated utility rates, or is the technical phase of two-step sealed bidding.
- Disclosure Exceptions: Publicly available price lists, standard commercial pricing, and participation in reverse auctions do not, by themselves, constitute a prohibited "disclosure" of prices.
- Mandatory Rejection: Contracting officers must reject any offer where the bidder has deleted or modified the core non-collusion certifications (paragraphs (a)(1), (a)(3), or (b) of the certificate).
- Administrative Review: If an offeror modifies the certification regarding the authority of the signer (paragraph (a)(2)), the chief of the contracting office must determine in writing if the disclosure restricted competition before the bid can be considered.
- Referral to Justice Department: Any suspected false certifications or evidence of collusive bidding must be reported to the Attorney General.
- Follow-on Orders: Once a certificate is properly executed for a contract, additional certifications are generally not required for subsequent work orders where the government's needs cannot be met by other sources.
Practical Implications
- Offerors must be extremely careful not to alter the boilerplate language of the certificate, as doing so typically results in an automatic rejection of the proposal for non-responsiveness.
- Firm-level compliance programs must ensure that the individual signing the proposal has a valid "blanket authorization" or specific authority from the person responsible for pricing to avoid certification errors.