Information about the previous performance of contractors on federal contracts can help procurement officers get the best work out of their vendors. A new Defense Department draft guide on using past performance describes complex rules in a simple set of guidelines.
As the days of using lowest bid as the deciding factor in procurement decisions fade into the past, tracking and rating contractor performance is becoming an increasingly important task in proposal evaluations. But the government has been criticized by contractors for having too many different approaches to the way it gathers and interprets past performance data. Past performance practices vary agency to agency--even from office to office within agencies.
To bring consistency to collection and use of information on contractor performance, DoD is creating a standard policy to replace component-specific policies.
This "Past Performance Top Ten List," included in DoD's guide, offers acquisition specialists a handy cheat sheet to remind them of past performance pitfalls and best practices.
- All contract performance assessments should be consistent throughout the contract performance period. Managers and contracting officers can prepare report cards on contractor performance during the contract's life span, as well as afterward. Report cards should reflect award fees the contractor earns.
- The narrative is the most critical aspect of past performance information assessments. In fact, narratives explaining performance ratings are mandatory in DoD if the ratings are to be used in future contract decisions. Narratives don't have to be written at great length, but they need to establish credible and justifiable reasons for a rating.
- No one office or organization should independently determine a performance assessment. Evaluations should include input from program management offices, end users, contracting offices, line managers, Defense Contract Management Command contract administration offices and Defense Contract Audit Agency offices. Assessments should not be written by support service contractors.
- Performance assessments should be built throughout the life of the contract. Don't wait until the contractor has completed its work before evaluating how well or badly it did. Annual performance assessment reports should be prepared for long-term contracts.
- Evaluation of past performance information should be tailored to fit the needs of each specific acquisition and clearly articulated in the solicitation. Don't confuse experience and past performance. Experience is whether contractors have done similar work before; past performance is how well contractors have performed similar work.
- Use the most relevant and recent past performance information available in making source selection decisions. Proposal evaluators screen offerors' references to decide which are relevant. DoD does not want evaluators using past performance information that is more than three years old. Information that old should be purged from DoD records.
- All past performance information should be verified with a second source, even if obtained from a database. Information submitted by contractors should be double-checked. Conflicts between offerors' information and other sources should be considered.
- Do not use adverse past performance information on which the offeror has not had an opportunity to comment. In a decision last year (McHugh/Calumet, a Joint Venture, B-276472, June 23, 1997), the General Accounting Office sustained a bidder's protest because an agency failed to give the firm a chance to challenge negative past performance information.
- The burden of proof on currency of past performance information rests with the contractor. Agencies have no duty to search for more current information than that which a contractor submits during the source selection process.
- Past performance rules for report cards are the same for informal and passive information. If contracting officers send out surveys or questionnaires to gather past performance information, they must use the uniform assessment elements DoD has created for each business sector. Those elements are included in DoD's draft guide.