More protest activities by defense contractors due to a constrained Defense Department budget environment are making source selection teams more conservative, according to a U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) acquisition executive.
USSOCOM Deputy for Acquisition James Cluck said yesterday that in better budgetary days, USSOCOM would issue contracts without much discussion and those who lost out on a contract would “lick (their) wounds, find out what (they) did wrong and try again next time.”
But “the competitive environment, right now, is not such as you are being that lenient on us,” he said at a National Defense Industrial Association breakfast in Arlington, Va.
“Usually, USSOCOM used to solicit with words like ‘We reserve the right to award without discussion and we will be making our determination based on best value,’” Cluck said. “Apparently, we used to do that quite regularly.”
But because the concept of “best value” can be broadly interpreted, Cluck added that in today’s competitive DoD budget environment, where every award is of great importance, source selection teams are issuing more information in solicitations and encouraging discussions so contractors don’t resort to protests.
“We are giving a little bit more information on what best value might look like when you read the solicitation,” Cluck said. “So the area of protest should only be an area where you were harmed or injured in some process through our evaluation of your proposal, not from a lack of understanding of what we were looking for or lack of understanding of what aspect of your proposal is going to be graded.”
Cluck said the concept of “best value” is something DoD has to make sure every team is well-versed in before starting their evaluation process. He said program executive offices, program management offices and “government technical” folks who participate in the development of the acquisition plan and solicitation package don’t have the day-to-day acquisition experience necessary to make the right award decisions.
“They’re not contract specialists, they are not acquisition professionals who are used to looking at this stuff on a daily basis,” Cluck said. “They’re operators and they look at things a little bit differently than we do at times. When they see something they like, that’s what they want.”