52.212-2 EVALUATION--COMMERCIAL ITEMS

(a)  The government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers:

(1)  PAST PERFORMANCE

(2)  PRICE

Past Performance is significantly more important than, approximately equal to, or significantly less important than Price when being evaluated.

Note:  In accordance with FAR 15, choose one of these phrases to express the relative order of importance.

(b)  Options. The government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the government to exercise the option(s).

(c)  A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer's specified expiration time, the government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

Addendum to FAR 52.212-2:

BASIS FOR CONTRACT AWARD: This is a competitive selection in which competing offerors past and present performance history will be evaluated on a basis significantly more important than price. By submission of its offer in accordance with the instructions provided in clause FAR 52.212-1, Instructions To Offerors, the offeror accedes to the terms of this model contract and all such offers shall be treated equally except for their prices and performance records. The evaluation process shall proceed as follows:

A. Initially offers shall be ranked according to price, including option prices. An offeror's proposed prices will be determined by multiplying the quantities identified in the Pricing Schedule by the unit price for each item to confirm the extended amount for each.  Copies of the Pricing Schedule will be necessary in order to submit a proposal for each Option Year.

B. Using questionnaires, the contracting officer shall seek relevant performance information on (fill in based on PPT approach) based on (1) the references provided by the offeror and (2) data independently obtained from other government and commercial sources.  Relevant performance includes performance of efforts involving (insert type of requirement) that are similar or greater in scope, magnitude and complexity than the effort described in this solicitation.  The government reserves the right to seek information on higher priced offerors if none of the lower priced offerors receive a "Substantial Confidence" performance assessment rating.  The purpose of the past performance evaluation is to allow the government to assess the offeror's ability to perform the effort described in the solicitation, based on the offeror's demonstrated present and past performance.  The assessment process will result in an overall performance confidence assessment rating of Substantial Confidence, Satisfactory Confidence, Limited Confidence, No Confidence, or Unknown Confidence as defined in MP5315.3, Table 3.  Past performance regarding predecessor companies, key personnel who have relevant experience, or sub-contractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement will/will not be considered as highly as past performance information for the principal offeror. Offerors with no relevant past or present performance history or the offeror's performance record is so limited that no confidence assessment rating can be reasonably assigned shall receive the rating "Unknown Confidence", meaning the rating is treated neither favorably nor unfavorably.

Note:  For Approach #1 use "each offeror" or specify the number of lowest priced offerors you will initially assess.  For Approach #2, specify the number of lowest priced offerors you will initially assess, usually the lowest five to seven.  For Approach #3, use "all offerors."

C.  In evaluating past performance, the government reserves the right to give greater consideration to information on those contracts deemed most relevant to the effort described in this solicitation.

D.  If the lowest priced evaluated offer is judged to have a "Substantial Confidence" performance rating and is determined to be responsible, that offer represents the best value for the government and the evaluation process stops at this point. Award shall be made to that offeror without further consideration of any other offers.

(Use this paragraph if following Approach #1 or #2)

E. In the event that the government does not make an award pursuant to paragraph D above, the government reserves the right to award a contract to other than the lowest priced offer if that offeror is judged to have a performance assessment rating of "Satisfactory Confidence" or lower.  In that event, the Source Selection Authority shall make an integrated assessment best value award decision.

(Use this paragraph if following Approach #3)

E.  If the lowest priced offeror is not judged to have a "Substantial Confidence" performance assessment, the next lowest priced offeror will be evaluated and the process will continue (in order by price) until an offeror is judged to have a " Substantial Confidence" performance assessment or until all offerors are evaluated.  The Source Selection Authority shall then make an integrated assessment best value award decision.

F. Offerors are cautioned to submit sufficient information and in the format specified in the proposal preparation instructions to permit a meaningful assessment of past performance. Offerors may be asked to clarify certain aspects of their proposal or respond to adverse past performance information to which the offeror has not previously had an opportunity to respond.  Adverse past performance is defined as past performance information that supports a less than satisfactory rating on any evaluation element or any unfavorable comments received from sources without a formal rating system.  Communication conducted to resolve minor or clerical errors will not constitute discussions and the contracting officer reserves the right to award a contract without the opportunity for proposal revision.

G. The government intends to award a contract without discussions with respective offerors. The government, however, reserves the right to conduct discussions if deemed in its best interest.