2.2  Why Do You Need One?

It is required by the FAR under the Uniform Contract Format and it helps you reach a solid, supportable source selection decision.

-  Better Proposals - By understanding what's really important to the Government, offerors are better able to respond clearly to the Government's needs and make intelligent tradeoff decisions during proposal preparation, giving emphasis to those things the Government has identified as most important.  All proposals are measured against these same criteria.

-  Basis of Source Selection Decision - The Government decision maker, or Source Selection Authority (SSA), must use the solicitation criteria to select an offeror. Section M sets out these criteria.  You'll often hear the term "discriminators" used when discussing Section M.  Discriminators are significant aspects of an acquisition that are expected to distinguish one proposal from another, thus having an impact on the ultimate selection decision.  By using criteria which act as discriminators, the source selection team can provide the SSA with an evaluation that distinguishes among competing proposals in those areas the Government believes are most important.  This facilitates selecting the offeror(s) most likely to deliver the best value to the Government, to perform the resulting contract(s) successfully, and to satisfy the Government's requirements.  The integrity and fairness of the source selection process are directly linked to the source selection team and SSA strictly following Section M.