§ 501.170-2 - Acquisition letters.

(a) Acquisition letters may be issued to provide coverage on an interim basis, pending incorporation of material in GSA orders or handbooks. Acquisition letters will be considered canceled after one year and therefore must be incorporated into the applicable order or handbook within that time period.

(b) The heads of contracting activities (HCA's) or their designees may issue acquisition letters. Normally no more than two officials within a contracting activity, as appropriate, may be designated to issue acquisition letters.

(c) Acquisition letters must be coordinated with appropriate offices including Acquisition Policy, Counsel, and the Inspector General. Proposed procedures affecting the operation of the small business program must be coordinated with the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (AU).

(d) Acquisition letters must be identified by a number assigned by the issuing activity. The number should begin with the correspondence symbol of the issuing office, followed by the last two digits of the calendar year in which it is issued and be numbered consecutively beginning with 1. For example, the number of the first letter issued by the Commissioner, Public Buildings Service, in calendar year 1989 will be P-89-1.

(e) The body of the acquisition letter should contain the following paragraphs, as appropriate:

(1) Purpose.

(2) Background.

(3) Effective date.

(4) Termination date.

(5) Cancellation.

(6) Applicability (offices to which acquisition letter is applicable).

(7) Reference to regulations (FAR or GSAR), handbooks, or orders.

(8) Instructions/procedures.

(f) The issuing office is responsible for distributing its acquisition letters to affected contracting activities, regional Acquisition Management Staffs (RAMS), the Office of Acquisition Policy, appropriate Central Office contracting activities, Associate General Counsels, Regional Counsels, Directives and Correspondence Management Branch in Central Office, and Information Management Branches in the regions. In Region 3, it is the Administrative Operations Branch.

(g) Each issuing office must report on acquisition letters issued and canceled on a quarterly basis so that the Office of Acquisition Policy can issue a consolidated index of all acquisition letters issued or canceled. The index will be distributed to GSA contracting activities.