Procurement Integrity Overview

1. Procurement Integrity Overview National Contract Management Association – Norfolk Chapter

2. Procurement Integrity Act • Law that embodies the concepts of: • Authority/Contracting Officer Authority • Fairness/Fair Opportunity to Compete • Competition/Full and Open • Addresses both: • Procurement-sensitive and source selection information • Government information • Proprietary or business-sensitive data • Contractor information

3. Procurement Integrity Act • Prohibits seeking, releasing, or receiving such information • And imposes civil and criminal penalties for violations • Up to $50,000 and 5 years for Government employees • Up to $500,000 and 5 years for contractor personnel • Suspension/debarment of company

4. When does a procurement begin? • To some contractors, when the Contracting Officer issues a synopsis for a forthcoming Request for Proposals (RFP) • But in actuality, when the Government identifies a need or requirement • When does that occur? • How early can that occur? • Certainly by the time the Government puts pen to paper to begin market research and building the requirements package

5. What’s included? • At minimum, Government information regarding: • Scope of work, statement of work, estimated requirements, budget information, independent Government cost estimates, acquisition plan or strategy, source selection criteria, source selection plan, identity of technical evaluation panel members • For contractors: • Technical proposal content • Cost proposals including detailed cost information • Darlene Druyun – Airbus and Boeing

6. When Government Members Need to be Especially Vigilant • Development of requirements package • Refuse offers of free help (Organizational Conflicts of Interest) • While package is with the Contracting Officer in pre-solicitation, solicitation, and evaluation phases (Pre-Award) • Especially while serving in a Source Selection role • Technical Evaluation Panel member • Best value trade-off analysis • Air Force “Thundervision” case

7. Overarching Contracts and Task Orders • Procurement Integrity tenets apply to the requirements and source selection processes for both: • Establishment of the overarching IDIQ contract(s) • Individual task orders under Single-Award (SA) and Multiple Award Contracts (MAC)

8. Additional Considerations • Government role in requirements and source selection process is largely conducted in a highly integrated environment of Government and contractor employees • Require OGE 450s from prospective requiring individuals and technical evaluators before appointing them in order to preclude conflicts of interest • Have OGE 450s updated on an ongoing basis, especially for recurring task order development and technical evaluation teams

9. Fail Safe • Consult contracting professionals in all phases. • Refer contractor inquiries to in-house contracting professional or Contracting Officer (phase dependent). • Be careful what you say and who’s around when you say it.

10. A Closing Thought • “Hold onto your integrity, ladies and gentlemen. It’s the one thing you really need to have. If you don’t have it, that’s why you need it.” Lawrence Peter Berra