THE NOTICE I NEVER KNEW
So walk through this with me …
WHAT IS A NOTICE? A notice is a method of publishing infor- mation to industry and may be made at different stages of the acquisition. A notice may announce availability of a govern- ment solicitation, an award of a contract, or dates, times and locations for meetings with industry to discuss procurement needs. To that point, the FAR encour- ages what it calls early exchanges of information that may take the form of pre-solicitation notices, business fairs, pre- bid or pre-proposal conferences, and the availability of draft solicitations or draft specifications for review. Easy enough, I thought.
WHAT IS A SYNOPSIS? Te FAR refers to a notice of a proposed contract action as a “synopsis.” A synopsis announces the availability of a govern- ment solicitation or a contract award. It is a summary or outline of a solicitation or a contract action that must be published on a government website that is accessible by the public. See FAR 5.201.
What information must be provided in a synopsis?
A stipulation in FAR Part 5 requires specific information about the contract action that must be included in the synop- sis, when industry is invited to respond to the synopsis and when those responses must be submitted to the government.
The FAR requires that each synop- sis address 18 required elements. Tese elements are in the regulations because the government has particular interests when publishing a synopsis—when limit- ing competition, the government wants to make sure that its interests are well represented.
Sixteenth in that list of required elements among those at FAR 5.207(a) is the description of the supplies or services that the government intends to purchase.
Te description of supplies or services being sought must be written clearly and concisely—free from ambiguity (clear) and expressed using only a few words but in a way that is easy to understand (concise); not unnecessarily restrictive of competition; and allowing a prospective offeror to make an informed decision as to whether to request a copy of the solici- tation, according to FAR 5.207(c).
If a synopsis does not contain an accu- rate description of the supplies or services being sought, it unnecessarily restricts
competition and fails to achieve our procurement objectives.
Here’s where competition comes into play.
If, for example, my synopsis doesn’t accu- rately describe the services required to overhaul a helicopter engine, or a synop- sis identifies only two of 15 spare parts required for a tank’s ventilation system, in both examples industry can’t accu- rately describe its capabilities to satisfy the requirement. Consequently,
the
government denies all responsible sources an opportunity to compete for the contract award.
While it may appear that my failure to list all of the parts or accurately describe services that the government wants doesn’t
LOOK HERE!
The FAR is a daunting document, and sometimes it takes a little extra help to decipher its nuances. So let us guide you. The first thing you should know: A notice is a method of publishing information to industry. (Photo by Sgt. LaShawna Custom, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command)
60
Army AL&T Magazine
Spring 2020
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