Veterans Affairs Acquisition Strategy Determination – “Rule of Two” in Practice

by | Dec 6, 2019 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

By Nicole Eger

Both VA Program Offices and Contracting Offices have the responsibility of performing market research during various phases of the acquisition process. The Program Office gathers information to ensure that their requirements are in line with what is available from the commercial market. The Contracting Office needs to know what the field of interested vendors look like concerning socio-economic category and the relative assertion that the interested firms are capable of fulfilling the requirements at a fair and reasonable price.

The US Supreme Court decision in the Kingdomware case solidified that VA has a regulatory requirement to adhere to the Vets First program. By law, Mandatory Sources must first be considered for contracting the need, but Kingdomware in practice means that if there is a contracting vehicle (General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS)) identified, then the Program Office and Contracting Office are to consider the following method for determination of an Acquisition Strategy for the effort:

  1. Are there two or more SDVOSBs on the GSA FSS that can do the work?
  • If yes, proceed with an SDVOSB Set-Aside acquisition strategy using FSS
  • If no, look at the commercial market for two or more capable SDVOSBs
  1. Are there two or more SDVOSBs in the commercial market that can do the work?
  • If yes, proceed with an SDVOSB Set-Aside acquisition strategy outside of FSS
  • If no, look at the GSA FSS for VOSBs
  1. Are there two or more VOSBs on a GSA FSS that can do the work?
  • These two can be a combination of one SDVOSB and one VOSB
  • If yes, proceed with a VOSB Set-Aside acquisition strategy using FSS
  • If no, look at the commercial market for two or more capable VOSBs
  1. Are there two or more VOSBs in the commercial market that can do the work?
  • If yes, proceed with a VOSB Set-Aside acquisition strategy outside of FSS
  • If no, look at the GSA FSS for SBs
  1. Are there two or more SBs on the GSA FSS that can do the work?
  • If yes, proceed with an SB Set-Aside acquisition strategy using FSS
  • If no, look at the commercial market for two or more capable SBs
  1. Are there two or more SBs in the commercial market that can do the work?
  • If yes, proceed with an SB Set-Aside acquisition strategy outside of FSS
  • If no, look at the GSA FSS for any two or more firms that can do the work
  1. Are there two or more firms of any size on the GSA FSS that can do the work?
  • If yes, proceed with a Full-and-Open acquisition strategy using FSS
  • If no, proceed with a Full-and-Open acquisition strategy outside of the FSS

Of course, there are several market research processes and steps between branches of the decision tree that assist with the identification of interested vendor pools with the capability, capacity, and viability to support an acquisition strategy that will result in reduced procurement risk.