…DoD now will try to make more clear the worth of delivering a capability above “technically acceptable” or the minimum requirement when awarding contracts. “What that would allow the source selector to do is then say ‘Because the other offer came in that’s more expensive than the lowest price one, but it has this additional capability, I can put a price on that and quantify the value to the government of that additional capability,’” said Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in an interview with Federal News Radio. “This opens up a better way of doing best value selection that’s more defendable when it comes to protests.”… If the source selector wanted to go with a vendor that cost more during a LPTA competition, the contracting officer would then have to go through a process to justify spending the extra money. Clark said that process was “very subjective.” Now with the issuance of the memo, DoD will outline in its request for proposals how much it is willing to pay extra for something better than minimally required. “You could say I need this thing to go this fast, but if it can go faster we would be willing to pay X number of dollars per additional mile per hour of speed,” Clark said...
In the News