Past performance must be evaluated in negotiated competitive acquisitions expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, unless the contracting officer documents why it is not an appropriate evaluation factor 1. The solicitation must describe its general approach for evaluating past performance information 2, so read that description before you choose a single reference.
The solicitation must also give you an opportunity to identify past or current contracts, including federal, state, local government and private ones, for efforts similar to the requirement, and the source selection authority determines the relevance of similar past performance information 3.
When the agency evaluates what you send, it considers the currency and relevance of the information, its source, its context and the general trends in your performance 4. Past performance information includes the ratings and supporting narratives about your actions under previously awarded contracts or orders 5.
Choosing references
Relevance can come from more than your own prime contracts. The evaluation should take into account past performance of predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement, when that information is relevant 3. For a joint venture, the joint venture's own past performance is considered, and if it does not demonstrate past performance, the past performance of each party is considered 3.
If you have no record of relevant past performance, or none is available, you may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance 3.
Bids2Bank's library ranks your records against a bid using the recency window Section L states word for word, then Section M, then the whole solicitation, and uses five years when none is stated 6. For a subcontract or joint-venture record it can at best confirm that the prime contract exists on USAspending, and never marks the record verified 7.
Worked example. Section L asks for three references from the past five years. Contractor H has a large prime contract that ended seven years ago and a smaller, very similar subcontract that ended last year. It leads with the recent subcontract, names its point of contact at the prime, and leaves the older contract out.
Problems and corrective actions
The solicitation must authorize you to provide information on problems encountered on the contracts you identify and your corrective actions, and the government considers that information as well as information obtained from any other sources 3.
Your official record is worth tending before you need it. When a past performance evaluation is ready, you get up to 14 calendar days from the notification of its availability to submit comments, rebutting statements or additional information 8.
Rank your past performance records →
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