ARMY AL&T


“I asked for chicken marsala.” Te waiter says, “I decided to replace the chicken marsala with the mac and cheese because we ran out of chicken” and walks away. Clearly, the waiter cannot compel you to buy the mac and cheese at his option without your consent.


Likewise, according to FAR 17.207(f ), contracting officers must evaluate options when the contract is initially awarded so both parties understand and agree to the terms of the option and its cost.


However, when the option was evaluated and priced at the time the contract was initially awarded, the option may be exer- cised to “bridge,” or extend, the contract’s period of performance until the follow- on contract is awarded. In such cases, executing the clause is NOT considered a bridge action.


Executing the clause is considered a bridge action when the clause was NOT evaluated and priced at the time of award of the contract or order, thus requiring a justification to limit competition.


THE JUSTIFICATION Te rationale for the bridge action must focus on (a) why and how the delay occurred; (b) why the bridge action is needed; and (c) how to resolve the delay.


To explain why and how the delay occurred, the rationale should focus on the specific circumstances of the delay, when it occurred, what we did to over- come the circumstances and why the delays could not have been mitigated.


To explain why the bridge action is needed, the rationale should focus on why we waited until now to request it, include specific dates in explaining when the delay occurred, and describe how the cost estimate was calculated, how


AUTOMATIC SUBSTITUTIONS


If you ordered a cheeseburger and the chef substituted an expensive steak instead, would you be forced to pay for the upgrade? A contracting officer may invoke the “Option to Extend Services” at FAR 52.217-8, but the conditions and price of any option must be evaluated before they are acceptable by both parties. (Image by Getty Images)


the period of performance for the bridge action was calculated and what injury the government will sustain if the bridge is not executed.


To explain how to resolve the delay, the justi- fication for the bridge action should include a milestone chart to illustrate where we intended to be when we initially determined the schedule for award of the follow-on


contract, as well as an explanation of how the revised dates for award of the follow- on contract were estimated. Te milestone chart may, for example, provide the orig- inal procurement events, the dates those events were estimated to be accomplished a record of revised dates that surpassed the initial dates, with reasons explaining why the scheduled events and initial dates were surpassed. (See Figure 1, Page 98.)


https://asc.ar my.mil 97


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172