6.1  Section M's Role in the SSA's Best Value Decision-Making Process

Remember, Section M forms the basis for evaluating offeror proposals.  This evaluation generates the information that the SSA is required to use when determining which offeror's proposal represents the best value to the Government for your acquisition.  FAR Part 2 defines "best value" as "the expected outcome of an acquisition that, in the Government's estimation, provides the greatest overall benefit in response to the requirement."  The SSA is constrained to the requirements of the solicitation, the factors and subfactors, and processes contained in Section M when making this decision.  For this reason, it is absolutely essential that your Section M contain the appropriate subfactors, their relative order of importance, and any known tradeoff considerations.  Doing this ensures, to the best of your ability, the success of your acquisition because the SSA will have the right information to select the most advantageous offer.  FAR 15.302 -- Source Selection Objective, states: "The objective of source selection is to select the proposal that represents the best value."