4.1  Overview

Non-commercial acquisitions must follow the uniform contract format described in FAR 15.204-1.  Commercial acquisitions are governed by the format in FAR 12.303.  The FAR requires that the government evaluate competing proposals based solely on the factors described in the solicitation.  Sections L and M of the RFP describe the information required to be in the contractors offer and sets the ground rules for evaluation.  (For commercial acquisitions, the Instructions to Offerors and Description of Evaluation Factors are utilized).  These sections form the heart of the solicitation.  The basis for nearly all GAO protests stems from not following some aspect of the instruction to offerors or from not following the evaluation factors.  It is therefore paramount that solicitations describe clearly and concisely the information required and the evaluation factors, including their relative order of importance.  Past performance should be given sufficient evaluation weight to ensure that it is meaningfully considered throughout the source selection process and will be a valid discriminator among the proposals received.

Note:  While stating that price is more important than past performance is one of the FAR prescribed statements, and it is mentioned in our sample Section M, it diminishes the flexibility for tradeoff and we do not recommend using it.  Ii is more difficult to justify a tradeoff with a higher priced offer if price is more important than performance and consideration, in that instance, should be given for using Lowest Price Technically Acceptable.