Overview
This section outlines a specific exception where the Small Business Administration (SBA) Certificate of Competency (CoC) procedures may not apply to certain high-level service contracts.
Key Rules
- Applicability: The exception applies to service contracts where the Government requires the "highest competence obtainable."
- Evidence of Requirement: To qualify for this exception, the solicitation must include:
- A request for a technical/management proposal.
- A resultant technical evaluation.
- A formal source selection process.
- Regulatory Reference: While standard small business responsibility determinations usually require referral to the SBA under subpart 19.6, this section clarifies that such procedures may be waived under these specific technical criteria.
Practical Implications
- In "best-value" trade-off acquisitions for complex services, a small business that is not selected due to a lower technical ranking may not be entitled to an SBA CoC review, as the decision is based on comparative technical merit rather than a binary responsibility determination.
- Contracting officers must ensure the solicitation is structured with clear technical evaluation criteria to justify the pursuit of "highest competence" and bypass standard CoC referrals.