Organizational conflict of interest rules rest on two underlying principles: preventing the existence of conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment 1, and preventing unfair competitive advantage 2. On a long program, the work you do today can create either one for the work you want tomorrow.
Writing the requirement
If a contractor prepares and furnishes complete specifications covering nondevelopmental items, to be used in a competitive acquisition, that contractor shall not be allowed to furnish these items, either as a prime contractor or as a subcontractor, for a reasonable period of time including, at least, the duration of the initial production contract 3.
Judging your own work
Contracts for the evaluation of offers for products or services shall not be awarded to a contractor that will evaluate its own offers, or those of a competitor, without proper safeguards to ensure objectivity to protect the government's interests 4.
What you know
An unfair competitive advantage exists where a contractor competing for award of any federal contract possesses 5 source selection information that is relevant to the contract but not available to all competitors, and that would assist it in obtaining the contract 6.
A contractor that gains access to proprietary information of other companies in performing advisory and assistance services for the government must agree with those companies to protect their information from unauthorized use or disclosure for as long as it remains proprietary 7. Contractors should also make inquiries of marketing consultants to ensure that the consultant has provided no unfair competitive advantage 8.
What the contracting officer does, and when you should act
Contracting officers shall analyze planned acquisitions in order to 9 identify and evaluate potential organizational conflicts of interest as early in the acquisition process as possible 10, and to avoid, neutralize, or mitigate significant potential conflicts before contract award 11. Before issuing a solicitation for a contract that may involve a significant potential conflict, the contracting officer shall recommend a course of action for resolving it to the head of the contracting activity 12.
At award, the contracting officer shall award the contract to the apparent successful offeror unless a conflict of interest is determined to exist that cannot be avoided or mitigated 13. Before withholding award on conflict grounds, the contracting officer shall notify the contractor, provide the reasons, and allow the contractor a reasonable opportunity to respond 14.
The examples are not a complete list: conflicts may arise in situations not expressly covered in section 9.505 or in the examples in 9.508 15.
Worked example. Contractor T supplies acquisition-support analysts to a program office and wants to bid that office's next production contract. Its pre-bid review finds that two of its analysts helped draft the statement of work. Contractor T raises it with the contracting officer early, proposes a mitigation plan, and decides in advance which contract it would keep if the conflict cannot be mitigated.
Indented paragraphs are invented worked examples. Tool links open Bids2Bank and need a free account.