Overview
FAR Subpart 15.3 prescribes the policies and procedures for selecting sources in competitive negotiated acquisitions. Its primary objective is to ensure the government selects the proposal representing the "Best Value" through a process that is fair, consistent, and based strictly on the evaluation factors specified in the solicitation.
Key Rules
- Best Value Objective: The ultimate goal is to select the proposal that provides the greatest overall benefit to the government, which may or may not be the lowest-priced offer.
- Adherence to Solicitation: Proposals must be evaluated solely on the factors and subfactors explicitly stated in the solicitation. No "hidden" evaluation criteria may be used.
- Mandatory Evaluation Factors:
- Price or Cost: Must be evaluated in every source selection (with narrow exceptions for certain DoD, NASA, and Coast Guard multiple-award contracts).
- Quality: Must be addressed through non-cost factors (e.g., technical excellence, management capability).
- Past Performance: Generally required for acquisitions exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold.
- Relative Importance: The solicitation must clearly state the relative importance of all evaluation factors, specifically whether non-cost factors, when combined, are significantly more important, equal to, or significantly less important than cost/price.
- Past Performance Neutrality: Offerors without a record of relevant past performance may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably; they must receive a neutral rating.
- Competitive Range: The Contracting Officer may limit the number of proposals to the "most highly rated" for the sake of efficiency before beginning discussions.
- Prohibited Conduct: Government personnel must not engage in favoritism, reveal an offeror’s intellectual property/technical solution to competitors, or reveal an offeror’s price without permission.
Responsibilities
- Agency Head: Holds ultimate responsibility for the source selection process and designates the Source Selection Authority (SSA).
- Source Selection Authority (SSA):
- Establishes the evaluation team (technical, legal, logistics, etc.).
- Approves the acquisition strategy and ensures consistency between requirements and evaluation factors.
- Provides an independent judgment and makes the final selection decision based on a comparative assessment of proposals.
- Contracting Officer (CO):
- Serves as the primary focal point for inquiries after the solicitation is released.
- Manages and controls all exchanges/communications with offerors.
- Establishes the competitive range and executes the final contract award.
- Evaluation Team: Conducts a comprehensive assessment of proposals and provides recommendations/reports to the SSA.
Practical Implications
- Tradeoff Process: In real-world scenarios, this subpart allows the government to justify paying a premium for a superior technical solution. However, this "tradeoff" must be documented with a clear rationale in the contract file to withstand legal challenges or protests.
- Communication Thresholds: There is a critical distinction between "Clarifications" (resolving minor errors) and "Discussions" (negotiations that allow for proposal revisions). Once the government enters discussions with one offeror in the competitive range, it must conduct them with all offerors in that range.
- Documentation is Key: Because the SSA must exercise "independent judgment," they cannot simply "rubber stamp" the evaluation team's findings. Detailed documentation of strengths, weaknesses, and risks is the primary defense against GAO protests.
- Small Business Weighting: For bundled or consolidated contracts, the regulations mandate that the government give high evaluation weight to small business subcontracting plans, creating a competitive advantage for firms with robust small business engagement strategies.