MILLER ON PROCUREMENT.

The following is offered as an informal checklist of things to do and mistakes to avoid in competitive high technology bidding.

1) The RFP needs to have ten sections carefully prepared. They are life cycle cost, present value, residual value, benchmark, evaluation criteria, terms and conditions, order of precedence, lease versus purchase, fixed price options and unbalanced proposal guidance.

2) Call each prospective vendor three weeks before the proposal and personally express interest in the fact that you hope they do propose.

3) Structure your benchmark and life cycle costing so that it truly reflects past workload and hopefully also future growth.

4) On an RFP, brief the technical team on the need for security. We saw one case where a small leak cost the Army $2 million and a different vendor won as a result. In that case, the leak hurt the vendor who would have won the contract. But, see number 14, below.

5) Use IFBs very carefully. They require special skill but are more honest. We have seen IFBs cost the agency an extra million because of vendor errors. Send vendors a checklist with the IFB.

6) Do not conduct a benchmark after award. This scares the vendor because he may be put into default.

7) Do not announce a benchmark only for the apparent winner. This allows the number two vendor to withdraw his lower priced alternate proposals and win at a higher price if the first vendor fails the benchmark.

8) Deal with options very carefully. Study the fixed price options clause and Far 17.207. Call us for free advice.

9) Deal with unbalanced proposals very carefully. Call us for free advice. Nothing brands an agency as an amateur faster than poor handling of unbalanced proposals. Most agencies are doing this very, very poorly. We saw one case where it cost NASA several million dollars. See FAR 15.814 and applicable case law.

10) Respond to vendor FOIA requests intelligently. See the Department of Justice guidelines on release of contracts. This helps the vendor to be more competitive on the next round and helps the government get a better price.

11) Have a price reconciliation meeting with each of the offerors in the competitive range. Ideally, have one meeting prior to Best and Final and one meeting after Best and Final. This avoids government arithmetic errors and reveals differences in interpretations between the government and the offerors. Thus, it could avoid award to the wrong vendor.

12) If a vendor challenges your technical specs, get independent advice from another source such as FEDSIM, NIST, FEDCAC, a central select, a consultant, etc. You look rather dumb to go back to the technical person who wrote the spec and ask them if the spec is well done. The answer is rather predictable.

13) Nothing in the procurement process requires the contracting officer to water down the specs to increase competition. We have seen such instances where the resulting winning product does not do the job -- but it was very competitive on price.

14) Do not cut the vendors off completely from access to the technical staff. No contracting officer in the government can properly run a procurement acting solely as an interface between user and vendor. Train your COTR to deal with the procurement process and control the technical staff. But let them talk to the vendor during the process. You will get better results.

15) Notify vendors prior to Best and Final if they are/are not technically acceptable. Never take a vendor to Best and Final who is not technically acceptable.

16) Deal with the vendors honestly and intelligently and you have nothing to fear except your own mistakes. Mistakes can be corrected.