B08 - ATTACHMENT E - OCI Certification.pdf

RFP Attachment E – Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) Certification

The FAR Part 9.5 prescribes responsibilities, general rules, and procedures for identifying, evaluating, and resolving Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI), provides examples to assist contracting officers in applying these rules and procedures to individual contracting situations; and implements section 8141 of the 1989 Department of Defense Appropriation Act. The two (2) underlying principles which the FAR seeks to avoid are preventing the existence of conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment and preventing unfair competitive advantage.

The following subsections prescribe certain limitations on contracting as the means of avoiding, neutralizing or mitigating organizational conflicts of interest.

It is the contractor’s responsibility to notify the Contracting Officer of any potential OCI. In the event that an OCI exists the contractor shall propose a Mitigation plan that shall be reviewed and accepted by the Contracting Officer prior to continuance of the work that presents an OCI. Should the proposed Mitigation Plan not be accepted by the Contracting Officer, the Government may terminate this contract, disqualify the Contractor from subsequent related contractual efforts, and pursue any remedies as may be permitted by the law or this contract.

Contractors shall sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement at the start of their performance on the contract.

If, under this contract, the contractor will provide systems engineering and technical direction for a system, but does not have overall contractual responsibility for its development, integration, assembly, checkout or production, the contractor shall not be awarded a subsequent contract to supply the system or any of its major components, or to act as consultant to a supplier of any system, subsystem, or major component utilized for or in connection with any item or other matter that is (directly or indirectly) the subject of the systems engineering and technical direction. The term of this prohibition shall endure for the entire period of this contract and for two (2) years thereafter.

If, under this contract, the contractor will prepare and furnish complete specifications covering non-developmental items, to be used in a competitive acquisition, the contractor shall not be permitted to furnish these items, either as a prime or subcontractor. The term of this prohibition shall endure for the entire period of this contract performance and for either two (2) years thereafter or the duration of the initial production contract whichever is longer. This rule shall not apply to contractors who furnish specifications or data at Government request or to situations in which contractors act as Government representatives to help Government agencies prepare, refine or coordinate specifications, provided this assistance is supervised and controlled by Government representatives.

If, under this contract, the contractor will prepare or assist in preparing a work statement to be used in competitively acquiring a system or services, the contractor shall not supply the system, its major components, or the service unless the contractor is the sole source, the contractor has participated in the development and design work, or more than one contractor has been involved in preparing the work statement. The term of this prohibition shall endure for the length of this contract.

If, under this contract, the contractor will provide technical evaluation of products or advisory and assistance services, the contractor shall not provide such services if the services relate to the contractor's own or a competitor's products or services unless proper safeguards are established to ensure objectivity.

If, under this contract, the contractor gains access to proprietary or source selection information of other companies in performing advisory assistance services for the Government, the contractor agrees to protect this information from unauthorized use or disclosure and to refrain from using the information for any purpose other than that for which it was furnished. A separate agreement shall be entered into between the contractor and the company whose proprietary information is the subject of this restriction. A copy of this agreement shall be provided to the Contracting Officer.

The Contracting Officer has significant discretion as to the acceptability of any mitigation plan offered.

Offerors are encouraged to present their best strategy for mitigation of any potential OCI under this requirement. Offerors shall submit a mitigation plan at the Contract level and update it as often as necessary throughout the life of the Contract.

The Contracting Officer (and when applicable the appropriate program office, acquisition manager, and legal counsel) will review the comparative analysis and, if provided, the Avoidance or Mitigation Plan, in accordance with the requirements of FAR Subpart 9.5 (Organizational Conflict of Interest) to determine whether award to that Offeror would be consistent with those requirements. If it is unilaterally determined by the Contracting Officer that no OCI would arise or that the OCI Avoidance or Mitigation Plan adequately protects the interests of the government in the event of award to that Offeror, the Offeror will be determined, for purposes of this clause, to be eligible for award. If the Contracting Officer reasonably determines that a Contractor has not provided either a comparative analysis or avoidance/mitigation plan, or both, or that the analyses or plan provided is inadequate, sanctions including elimination from the award process, or termination of the related contract effort already awarded, as well as other appropriate sanctions will be considered.

If the Offeror/Contractor knows of no OCI in accepting work under this contract, it shall certify its OCI status and submit the certification at the end of this clause with its proposal and any later award, if awarded the contract. The Contractor shall also obtain a similar certification of OCI status from all sub-Contractors, teaming partners or consultants prior to tasking any such party under this contract. The Contractor shall appropriately modify and include this clause, including this paragraph, in all consulting agreements and subcontracts of any tier to preserve the rights of the Government.

For breach of any of the above restrictions or for nondisclosure or misrepresentation of any relevant facts required to be disclosed concerning this contract, the Government may terminate this contract, disqualify the Contractor from subsequent related contractual efforts, and pursue any remedies as may be permitted by law or this contract.

Prior to a contract modification involving a change to the Performance Work Statement, or an increase in the level of effort or extension of the term of the contract, the Contractor shall submit any applicable organizational conflict of interest disclosure or an update of the previously submitted disclosure or representation.

The Offeror/Contractor should review the considerations below in determining whether or not a conflict of interest exists.

• Does the Offeror or any intended sub-Contractors, teaming partners, proposed employees, or affiliates have Unequal Access to Information? Would award to the Offeror result in the Offeror having the opportunity to access nonpublic information that may give the Offeror a competitive advantage in a later competition for a government contract? Specifically, will the Offeror/Contractor have access to any of the following information:

o Budget(s), or Budget Information?

o Acquisition Sensitive Information related to the procurement process to include, but not limited to

Acquisition Plans, Requirements, Statements of Work, or Evaluation Criteria?

• Does the Offeror or any intended subcontractors, teaming partners, proposed employees, or affiliates have “impaired objectivity” because the Offeror’s ability to render impartial judgments may be compromised because of its conflicting role(s) on this effort and other government contracts?

• Do “biased ground rules” exist? Most commonly, this would include a situation where the Offeror has, as a government Contractor, written specifications or a statement of work for this effort, which could skew competition in favor of itself?

• Is the Offeror aware of any other information relating to this proposed contract/order, which could reasonably be construed as creating an OCI?

The Offeror/Contractor hereby certifies to the best of its knowledge its OCI status below:

(Offeror: Choose one of the following two statements. Indicate which one applies by placing an X in the box to the left of the statement.)

No real or perceived OCI, as defined in FAR 2.1 and discussed in FAR 9.5, will result from an award of the proposed work (there are no ‘Yes’ responses to the questions above).

A real or apparent OCI may exist as a result of an award and therefore an appropriate OCI Avoidance or Mitigation Plan is attached (Offeror shall include an appropriate OCI Avoidance or Mitigation Plan, as required by this clause, with its proposal to the Contracting Officer).

Upon award the Contractor agrees that it will provide timely OCI training to all employees and subcontractor employees working on this effort, which will include emphasis on how work performed by Contractor employees (either prime Contractor, subcontractor, or other teaming partners) can exclude the Contractor as well as its teaming partners from performing related tasks under a different OCI category of work.

____________________________ (Signature) ____________________ (Date)

____________________________ (Printed Name) ____________________ (Title)