2. Proposal Kick-Off and Proposal Walk-Through Meeting.

For all sole source contract actions greater than $50M and any UCA greater than $1M, contracting officers shall:

a. Schedule a proposal kick-off meeting as soon as practicable after the Request for Proposal (RFP) (or Draft RFP if appropriate) has been issued by the contracting officer. The meeting shall be convened between the Air Force and the Contractor and should include, when appropriate, DCAA, DCMA, and, with the prime contractor's agreement, major subcontractors having a significant role in the award/definitization. This allows all parties to discuss procurement schedule requirements and expectations on timely contractor support. Expected major subcontracts (>$700,000 where cost analysis is required and specifically those that will require Government assist audits) and major subcontracts to be proposed as commercial items should be identified at this time.

b. After proposal submittal and preliminary review by the Government team (contracting officer, price analyst, program manager, DCMA, DCAA, etc, where appropriate), the contracting officer shall schedule a proposal walk-through meeting to be conducted by the contractor. The proposal walk-through meeting should ensure an understanding of the proposal composition, validate or revisit the award/definitization schedule, and establish action items for any obvious data omissions. If data omissions are so significant as to render the proposal inadequate for analysis, the contracting officer may reject the proposal. Prior to issuance of the UCA, these meetings may be used by the contracting officer to obtain and review the contractor's spend-plan for obligation limitations in accordance with DFARS 217.7404-4(b).

c. In the event that the contracting officer determines the meetings described above are not appropriate for a specific negotiation situation, the contracting officer must document the contract file and obtain the approval of the business clearance authority before proceeding. The contracting officer must obtain approval at one level above the business clearance approval authority in cases where the contracting officer is the business clearance authority. Meetings such as these should also be considered for smaller dollar programs, as determined necessary by the contracting officer.