This series of FAR summaries is meant to take a meaningful portion of the Federal Acquisition Regulations to ensure an easy-to-understand approach to maintain that readers comprehend the process of doing business with the government and that the government exercises a fair and reasonable approach to doing business with the general public.
FAR 19.602-1 Referral
Your Contracting Officer determines the responsibility of the offeror to fulfill obligations assumed in a potential award as seen in FAR 9.104. If business operations are considered to be irresponsible through the submitted proposal, compliance checks and financial oversight then the CO is to obtain a second opinion.
The project is immediately stopped and the SBA Government Contracting Area Office related to the geographic location of the company headquarters of the offeror not that nearest to the geographic location of the CO is contacted.
The CO submits a summary of how the offeror is determined to be nonresponsible. If the SBA agrees with the CO then the CO will provide the full solicitation, the final submitted proposal by the offeror in question, the pre-negotiation memorandum or final bids, past performance surveys, any technical or explanitory portion of the proposal, the company’s SAM FAR/DFARS report and D&B or other financial snapshot of the company in question.
The CO can only send one referral at a time and not multiple companies in a single referral.
15 days is taken to review the submitted package from the CO and the SBA determines responsibility by issuing a Certificate Of Competency if they disagree with the findings of the CO or not issuing one if they agree with the determination of the CO. The Area Director has discretion and can overrule the CO’s determination of nonresponsibility and therefore determines whether or not to award the project (FAR 19.602-2). The CO can appeal (FAR 19.602-3) but I never have because it makes work for executives.
In short, the CO works the buy up to the award phase and waits to see if the SBA issues a COC or not. If they do then you send award documentation. If they don’t then you notify the vendor of the decision to move forward with no intent to award the project. In either case, the vendor is supplied with the decision of the Area Director within the SBA and the contents are included in the project file.
I’ve went through this process and it is smooth. The complaint is that the SBA regularly issues a COC and the CO has to negotiate with a vendor who may be unqualified in their mind. However, vendors are happy because they get a second opportunity for an award and that’s good because competition drives the market.
If you think I can help you then email nicholas.s.robertson@outlook.com for your introductory email and free consultation.
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