Such contracts are used when an agency has a recurring need, but not an exact quantity or delivery schedule. Image: chaylek/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Senate has readied for voting in the waning weeks of this Congress S-3626, designed to simplify “task and delivery order” contracts, allow delivery orders for supplies or task orders for services to be placed against it as specific needs arise for a certain time period.
Those contracts are used when an agency has a recurring need, but not an exact quantity or delivery schedule. According to a report filed on the bill to prepare it for a floor vote, while those procedures have been simplified for defense agencies in recent years, a federal court read narrowly a law designed to extend those same flexibilities to non-defense agencies, requiring further legislation.
The bill would provide for evaluating price only at the task order level, which would lessen “the burden on contractors of providing detailed pricing information for the contract when specific tasks are not yet known, as well as the burden on agencies of evaluating this information. This allows for consideration of price and selection of the best solution for award of each task order, where the specifics of the work are known and can be priced out realistically,” it says.
Further, under current law, “task and delivery order contracts exceeding $100,000,000 may not be awarded to a single contractor (as opposed to awarding to multiple contractors who then compete for orders) unless the agency determines in writing that the contract meets certain requirements, such as the need for consistency in support across orders. The bill relieves agencies of this requirement in cases where a justification for use of non-competitive procedures for the contract has already been made by the agency under separate law,” it says.
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