(a) ESTABLISH THE REQUIREMENTS

(1) Decide whether your Section C needs a Multi-year Addendum (or separate SOO) that will apply if a multi-year contract is awarded. The Addendum requires contractor performance of specific tasks for the purpose of achieving one or more objectives of the multi-year contract.

(i) As with a typical non-multi-year solicitation, the Government is seeking proposals to satisfy a given set of requirements. What is unique about the multi-year solicitation is that it entertains different contracting approaches. This drives the contracting officer to provide either CLINs and/or terms and conditions (e.g., we will either use this basic CLIN and option CLINs or we will use this other set of CLINs geared to MYC or we will use these special funding and cancellation clauses if we award a multi-year contract, but we won't if we award an annual-buy contract).

(ii) There are certain objectives for contemplating the use of a multi-year contract. The most common objective is to save money. But there are other equally valid objectives a program manager may have when using a MYC approach. If your objectives include improving productivity, enhancing the industrial base, or enhancing standardization, you should incorporate appropriate requirements into Section C that will apply to the multi-year contract.

(iii) The most straightforward way to do this is with a Section C Addendum. This addendum should deal only with the productivity, industrial base, or standardization (or other) requirements you expect the contractor to satisfy if he is awarded a multi-year contract.

(iv) The solicitation should contain pertinent requirements if such objectives are to be met. If you do have a Multi-year Addendum to your Section C, it represents the single difference that will keep the annual-buy and multi-year proposals from being directly comparable to each other. Thus, you should allow for this in:

(A) Developing evaluation criteria to be used in deciding between the annual-buy and multi-year approaches. (If you have a Multi-year Addendum, then the subject of that addendum (e.g., increased productivity) should be an evaluation criterion.)

(B) Proposal preparation instructions, so that the cost of this portion of the total effort is identified. This will enable you to subtract this cost from the total multi-year cost line for purposes of an apples-to-apples comparison of the cost to the Government of the two contracting approaches.

(2) Establish the CLINs that will Apply if a Conventional Annual-buy Contract is Awarded. Follow normal rules and procedures regarding the establishment of CLINs.

(3) Establish the CLINs that will Apply if a Multi-year Contract is Awarded. Chapter 11 provides guidance on structuring CLINs in a multi-year contract.

(4) Draft Section B of the Request For Proposals. If you will be requesting both an annual-buy proposal and a multi-year proposal, Section B should include the CLINs applicable to each. It should also include a paragraph that explains which CLINs apply to the annual-buy proposal/contract and which apply to the multi-year proposal/contract. Otherwise, Section B should be prepared in accordance with normal rules and procedures.

(5) Draft the Funding Clauses Applicable to the Contemplated Multi-year Contract. Chapter 12 provides guidance for drafting these clauses.

(6) Draft the Cancellation Clauses Applicable to the Contemplated Multi-year Contract. Chapter 12 provides guidance for drafting these clauses.