Checking news for performance clues?

The Office of Federal Procurement Programs is asking federal contracting officers to broaden their review of contractor past performance--including checking news articles and publications.

In a recent memo, OFPP acting administrator Lesley Field suggested that contracting officers go beyond checking the PPIRS (Past Performance Information Retrieval System) when evaluating contractors in certain types of acquisitions.

At minimum, Field advises taking the additional steps to review “complex IT development, systems and services over $500,000 and other acquisitions identified by the agency as possessing significant risk.”

Field said the contracting officers should take these steps:

• Contact the Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer Representative or Program Manager from the contractor’s two largest, most recent federal contracts.
• Review news articles, Government Accountability Office or inspector general reports about a contractor’s business integrity and performance.
• Use commercial performance databases outside of PPIRS that provide reviews and evaluations of companies.
• Request offerors provide at least three to five references from recent contracts.
• Request primes provide information on subs.

The information collected by the above methods should be “evaluated and carefully balanced with available PPIRS information, and documented in the contract file to show how it was considered during the source selection process and in the award decision.

The Source Selection Authority also must describe the method for evaluating past performance information, and should provide offerers an opportunity to respond to adverse information--especially if they previously had no opportunity to do so, Field wrote.

Finally, the contracting officers must share the contractor performance information with senior leaders at the agency.

More information: OFPP memo http://goo.gl/zsiU5a

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