Appendix A - Respective Roles of Contracting and Other Personnel in the AID Procurement Process

1. Basic Policy

Only a contracting officer, designated to enter into contracts and make the determinations and findings related thereto (or an authorized representative of the contracting officer acting within the limits of his/her authority), may bind the United States Government to a contract, or direct or authorize a contractor to proceed with work.

2. Planning, Competition, Negotiation, and Award

(a) Preaward technical discussions with potential contractors should be conducted in such a manner as to preclude the assumption by any potential contractor that a commitment has been made. AID employees are responsible for insuring that no unfair competitive advantage is afforded one contractor over any other contractor in competing for Agency contracts. In this connection, discussions with prospective contractors prior to the final selection of the contractor and commencement of negotiations by the contracting officer must be conducted with the greatest discretion. No AID employee is authorized to dilute the Agency's negotiation position prior to or during an “arm's length” negotiation conducted between AID and the contractors with whom it does business. The requirement for preservation of the Agency's negotiation position must be scrupulously observed whether the procurement is to be negotiated with a single, non-competitive source or negotiated on the basis of multiple competitive proposals. It is advisable to involve the contracting officer in the activity planning cycle as early as possible, and to insure that he/she or his/her representative is either present at any meeting with prospective contractors, or is consulted prior to such a meeting.

(b) Contracting personnel act upon requirements which are formulated by the planning, technical, and research offices of the Agency. Contracting officers obtain the information they need on technical requirements by questions and discussions with the planning, technical, and research offices of the Agency. If a contract is to be tenable, the end result which is desired must be described with completeness and exactitude. The statement of work must be explicit; otherwise the contracting officer cannot assure terms in a contract by which the desired action can be enforced. If the requiring office cannot provide a point of departure in these terms and deliver to the contracting officer a clear-cut description of the purpose and outline the limits of the statement of work, results may be disappointing and the possibility of deferring the activity until these elements can be given more concrete dimensions should be considered. Finally, the requiring office should insure that the statement of work and funding information are delivered to the contracting officer with sufficient lead time to allow for proper preparation and planning of the procurement. Under most circumstances, the specific amount of funds which the Agency has available to support a contract shall not be made known to a prospective contractor; however, when a performance-based contract is planned, the contracting officer may decide that it is necessary to reveal in the announcement (CBD notice) and in the solicitation the Government estimate, or a narrow range of expected costs, in order to obtain goods and services of the highest affordable technical quality, and to ensure that offerors do not propose elaborate programs that cannot be financed by USAID.

(c) One of the paramount duties of the contracting officer is to ensure full and open competition for any planned procurement. The procedures for procurement by sealed bid, or for procurement by negotiation, or for procurement by other than full and open competition differ; the contracting officer must determine the proper method of procurement and contract type, keeping the requirements for full and open competition in mind. The technical office has a continuing responsibility to assist the contracting officer in this effort to ensure full and open competition. This responsibility should be exercised through proper planning to allow sufficient lead time, and preparation of statements of work designed to encourage full and open competition by avoiding specifications, descriptions, or work statements which could unnecessarily restrict competition.

3. Contract Administration

Meetings to discuss contract matters with contractors should be preceded by sufficient advance notification to all parties, including the contracting officer, to permit advance arrangements for the attendance at such meetings. Technical personnel shall not hold discussions of contract problems with contractors or technical problems with contractual implications without arranging for attendance by contracting personnel. Once a meeting with a contractor has been agreed upon and the issues have been made known to all involved parties, an internal AID meeting should take place between technical and contracting personnel, with the Country Desk representative and such other personnel in attendance as may be necessary, to establish an AID position or line of inquiry to be followed in the meeting with the contractor. If differences of opinion arise among AID personnel in the meeting with the contractor, such differences should never be discussed in the meeting with the contractor. AID personnel shall adjourn to resolve privately any such differences of opinion, and resume discussions with the contractor only when the AID position is consolidated. The AID individual designated to chair meeting with a contractor should be selected prior to the meeting with the contractor. Depending upon the issues to be discussed, whether primarily technical or primarily contractual, the chairman should be designated from either the technical office or the contracting office.

(Authority: Sec. 621, Pub. L. 87-195, 75 Stat. 445, (22 U.S.C. 2381) as amended; E.O. 12163, Sept. 29, 1979, 44 FR 56673; 3 CFR, 1979 Comp., p. 435)