A coalition of small businesses is protesting the rewrite of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 15 as unfair to small companies who want to contract with the federal government.
Testifying last week before the House Committee on Small Business on behalf of the Full and Open Competition Coalition, a group of more than 100 small business associations, Tom Frana, president of ViON Corporation, said the FAR 15 rewrite would "allow contracting officers the ability to exercise their discretion by funneling contract awards on a partisan or personal basis."
The FAR 15 rewrite would allow contracting officers to limit the number of proposals they review for a contract by revising the test the officers use to determine a contract's competitive range. The rewrite also would place greater reliance on market research and contractors' past performance in deciding which companies should bid on contracts. This, proponents argue, would speed up the procurement process, reduce paperwork and eliminate the need to review bids that would have little chance of being awarded contracts.
Frana said that efficiency should not be valued over fairness.
The FAR 15 rewrite "has failed to maintain the checks and oversight in the system that protects the offeror, the government and the taxpayer footing the bill," Frana said.
Frana said the rewrite jeopardizes "full and open competition" by making it difficult for small businesses to compete for contracts because they are generally less established than large corporations. New businesses, Frana said, are excluded even more by the market research and past performance options.
"Is it the old 'Can't get a job without experience and can't get experience without a job' problem?" Frana quipped.
Frana also told the committee that the rewrite's focus on process efficiency jeopardizes outcome efficiency.
"All businesses--not just small businesses--favor measures to improve government efficiency, but not to the point that the contracting officer can proudly declare, 'I efficiently purchased that $500 hammer!'" Frana said.
Another draft rewrite of Part 15 will be issued for review in a few weeks.
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