Ehat Do You Need to Know Anout Federal Acquisition Far

This weblog was originally posted on 11/16/2016 and updated four/22/2020.

On March xxx, 2020, a new amendment to the Federal Conquering Regulation (FAR) that could significantly impact federal contractors and the pocket-sized and various businesses inside their supply chains went into outcome. The new rule, FAC 2020-05, updates and clarifies regulations regarding set-aside orders under multiple-honor contracts.

What does this mean for you? Let'due south start with a quick refresher on the FAR equally a whole and and so take a look at two other updates.

What Is the Federal Acquisition Regulation?

The Federal Conquering Regulation is a set of clauses within the Code of Federal Regulations that describes the rules for contracting with the federal regime. Federal government agencies—too as authorities contractors that win a contract—are regulated by the FAR and must follow the procurement rules and policies set along within information technology.

Amendments to the FAR

The FAR is amended when the three regime agencies—the U.South. Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and the General Services Administration (GSA)—that are governed by the FAR, along with the FAR Council, issue proposed and final rules under the "notice and comment" procedures established past the Administrative Process Act.

Depending on how the regulation is promulgated, the number of comments received upon a proposed change, and other factors, the process of amending the FAR tin can take anywhere from months to years (and in some cases, a modify is proposed merely not finalized).

New and Upcoming FAR Amendments

If your company has a federal contract, the regime expects yous to exist FAR compliant. The federal government reviews contractor compliance with the FAR during purchasing reviews, and so it's important to stay up to engagement with new rules and amendments.

The FAR was recently amended in a few means that may be meaningful to your company. Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2020–04 apology the FAR to adjust the thresholds for application of the World Trade Organization Authorities Procurement Understanding and the Costless Trade Agreements as determined past a Usa Merchandise Representative (USTR), according to predetermined formulae under the agreements. This aligning is made approximately every two years.

FAC 2020-02 addresses the reporting of certain counterfeit or suspect counterfeit parts and sure major or critical nonconformances. Contractors and subcontractors are now required to report these items and incidents to the Authorities-Manufacture Data Substitution Program (GIDEP). This rule was already in consequence for DoD contractors and subcontractors only now extends to cover other regime agencies, other types of parts, and other types of nonconformance. Review the new requirements here to ensure compliance.

A more significant rule regarding set-asides nether multiple-award contracts went into effect on March 30, 2020. FAC 2020-05 brings the FAR into alignment with regulatory changes made by the Pocket-size Business Administration (SBA), which sets policy for partial gear up-asides and reserves also every bit set up-asides of orders for small businesses under multiple-award contracts authorities-wide.

Co-ordinate to the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (CAAC) and the Defense force Acquisition Regulations Quango (DARC), this subpoena to the FAR "is expected to benefit small business organisation by providing contracting officers with additional guidance on tools with which to encourage small business participation in multiple-award contracts."

By updating and clarifying these regulations, the FAR and SBA aim to increase opportunities for small businesses to win multiple-award contracts. For case, contracting officers have had the authorisation to apply the tools described in the subpoena for several years, but had minimal guidance nigh how to utilise them. In providing that guidance, the updated regulations are meant to:

1. Set aside office or parts of multiple-honor contracts for small business organisation;
2. Prepare aside orders nether multiple-award contracts, notwithstanding the statutory requirement to provide contract holders fair opportunity to be considered; and
3. Reserve one or more awards for small business on multiple-award contracts that are established through full and open contest (i.e., not totally or partially prepare aside).

The amendment also removes the current requirement for pocket-sized business offerors to submit an offer for both the fix-bated and non-fix-aside portions of a partial set-aside, assuasive them to submit an offer for just the set-bated portion. The regime expects this modify to increase the number of small businesses that can and will bid in multiple-contract situations.

Other impacts of this final rule include the post-obit:

• The dominion provides contracting officers with the authority to issue orders direct to a small concern nether a reserve.
  
• This dominion removes the ability of interested parties to protestation sole source awards under the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) plan.
  
• Currently, contracting officers assign but 1 North American Industry Nomenclature System (NAICS) code to a multiple-award contract. This rule requires certain multiple-honour contracts to be assigned more than one NAICS code.
  Some contractors may qualify as pocket-sized under the size standards associated with one or more of the NAICS codes assigned to a particular contract and also may qualify equally other than small for other NAICS codes assigned to the aforementioned contract.
  Therefore, some contractors may need to negotiate and manage a small business concern subcontracting plan either for the portion of a multiple-laurels contract for which they are other than small, or for the entirety of the contract, at the contractor'southward discretion, while other contractors may no longer require a subcontracting plan because the value of the portion of the contract for which they are other than pocket-size is too minor to require a subcontracting plan.
  
• Contracting officers currently verify compliance with the limitations on subcontracting at the contract level for multiple-award contracts that are ready aside for a small business program. This dominion requires contracting officers to specify the compliance period for the limitations on subcontracting at either the contract or lodge level.
  
• This rule prohibits tiered evaluation of offers on multiple-award contracts unless the agency has statutory authorization. Tiered evaluations permit the government to evaluate offers at each tier (e.g., service-disabled veteran-endemic pocket-size business concern) and only evaluate offers at the adjacent tier (e.grand., small business) if an award cannot be made at the previous tier; it reduces the number of offers that must be evaluated.
  

If you are a federal contractor, it's important to review your policies and procedures regularly to ensure compliance with all regulations, including new rules. Practice you need help keeping upward with changing FAR rules? CVM, a supplier.io visitor, can help. Click here to ensure yous are FAR compliant.

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Source: https://www.supplier.io/blog/what-is-far-and-why-it-s-important-to-be-compliant-with-federal-acquisition-regulation

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