OCI MFR.pdf

MEMORANDUM FOR: Interested Parties

Date: 15 October 2020

SUBJECT: Space Fence O&M – Solicitation #FA2517-20-R-0007, Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) Considerations

The Contracting Officer, in accordance with (IAW) FAR Part 9.5, is required to consider actual or potential OCI as early as possible within the timeline associated with an acquisition. As discussed in FAR 9.5, there are three basic kinds of OCIs:

1. Biased Ground Rules: Government contracts which require the contractor to develop requirement specifications, statements of work, etc. may impact the contractor’s company or affiliate to compete for efforts related to or including the specifications developed. A biased ground rules OCI would occur when a company competes for an award for which that company developed/wrote the specification package.

2. Unequal Access: Unequal Access to Information: In the course of performing one contract for the government, a company may acquire nonpublic information. This information may be in the form of source selection information or proprietary information from other companies.

3. Impaired Objectivity: Certain Government contracts require the contractor to provide objective recommendations to the Government. An impaired objectivity OCI may be incurred if the contractor is called upon to evaluate goods/services provided by their own company or an affiliate of the company. This type of OCI compromises the objectivity of the recommendations provided to the Government.

The Contracting Officer, using the general rules provided in FAR 9.504, is required to analyze planned acquisitions to identify and evaluate potential OCIs as early in the acquisition process as possible and avoid, neutralize or mitigate significant potential organizational conflict of interests before contract award. Additionally, the Contracting Officer should obtain the advice of counsel and technical subject matter specialists in evaluating potential conflicts, and in developing any necessary solicitation provisions and contract clauses.

IAW FAR 9.505, each individual contracting situation should be examined on the basis of its particular facts and the nature of the proposed contract. The two underlying principles for any determinations are:

Preventing the existence of conflicting roles that might bias the contractor’s judgement Preventing unfair competitive advantage.

FAR 9.508 provides some examples which might serve to illustrate situations in which questions regarding organizational conflict of interest may exist. They are not all encompassing, but should allow Industry to extrapolate from the examples and determine if any potential OCIs apply to their real world conditions.

Based on this information, it is imperative that Industry provide OCI Mitigation Plans to the Contracting Officer to address any potential conflict. If there is no OCI, a letter/email should be submitted to the Contracting Officer stating that fact. The Mitigation Plan should be submitted as soon as possible and, if submitting a letter/email stating there is no OCI, please do so prior to the posting of the Request for Proposals in mid-November.

Any information or questions regarding this topic should be submitted to: Kim Limón at kim.limon@spaceforce.com and Diana Cramer at diana.cramer.1@spaceforce.com .

mailto:kim.limon@spaceforce.com mailto:diana.cramer.1@spaceforce.com