mitted under the requirements of paragraphs (a) (1) and (2) of this section shall be accompanied by narrative justification explaining why those needs were not or could not have been included in the procurement plans. Such requests shall be submitted to the appropriate procurement office through an official designated by the head of the departmental office or operating unit.

(b) Each departmental office and/or operating unit should develop and issue implementing procedures to provide for collection of procurement planning data from all subordinate organizations in order to accommodate timely submission of the required reports.

§ 13-1.450-4 Planning for major systems acquisitions.

(a) Upon approval of a mission need by the Secretary (See DAO 208-3 and OMB Circular A-109) the Department's Acquisition Executive shal: designate the procurement office which will provide procurement support throughout all phases of that major systems acquisition process. (See DOC PR 13-4.50.)

(b) Upon notification of the designation of a supporting procurement office, the program manager shall, within 60 days, contact that procurement office for assistance in developing an overall procurement plan to be submitted to the acquisition executive for approval. The overall procurement plan shall include a schedule for completion of at least each of the following functions for each of the major systems acquisition procurement phases (i.e. exploration of alternative systems, competitive demonstrations, full-scale development and production):

(1) Development of a solicitation in terms of mission need.

(2) Advance publicity for the initial, exploration phase.

(3) Issuance of Requests for Proposals (RFP's).

(4) Closing dates for RFP's. (5) Evaluation and award.

(c) All changes in the overall procurement plan shall be submitted by the program manager to the acquisition executive along with a narrative

explanation of the necessity for each change.

§ 13-1.450-5 Precontract support.

After submission of the requirement to the procurement activity, program personnel must continue to support the procurement process by providing advice and assistance to the contracting officer in activities such as:

(a) Formulation of procurement schedules.

(b) Conduct of presolicitation or prebid/preproposal briefings of prospective contractors.

(c) Conduct of preaward surveys to determine contractor responsibility.

(d) Evaluation of technical and business proposals submitted by contractors, including requests for Government-furnished facilities and equip

ment.

(e) Development or evaluation and documentation of plans, procedures, and contract provisions relating to quality control, inspection, test data, patent data and acceptance of products or services.

(f) Establishment of contract requirements concerning packing, packaging, marking, inspection, point of acceptance, and shipment of products.

§ 13-1.450-6 Postaward contract administration.

(a) Upon execution of the contract by the contracting officer and the contractor, the mutual obligations of the Government and the contractor are established by and limited to the written stipulations in the contract instrument. Unless authorized by the contracting officer, program or technical personnel shall not direct or request the contractor to assume any obligation or take any action not specifically stated in the contract. Only the contracting officer may impose on the contractor any requirement which will result in a change to the contract. All contract changes must be directed in writing or confirmed in writing by the contracting officer.

(b) The role of program, technical, and other personnel in postaward administration of the contract is to assist or advise the contracting officer (or act as his representative when so des

ignated by the contracting officer) in activities such as:

(1) Conduct of conferences to ensure mutual understanding between the Government and the contractor as to the scope of the contract, technical and business requirements, and the rights and obligations of the parties.

(2) Technical liaison during contract performance and matters relating to product delivery, acceptance, or rejection.

(3) Evaluation of contractor performance, evaluation of reports and data, subcontract management, utilization of facilities and equipment, cost control, etc.

(4) Contractor systems and procedures evaluation; including accounting policies and procedures, purchasing policy and practices, property accounting and control, wage and salary plans and rate structures, personnel policies and practices, etc.

(5) Modification, renewal, or termination of the contract.

(6) Processing of final decisions under the disputes clause and appeals therefrom.

PART 13-2-[RESERVED]

PART 13-3-PROCUREMENT BY NEGOTIATION

Subpart 13-3.8—Price Negotiation Policies and Techniques

§ 13-3.805-50 Evaluation procedures-Use of the Source Selection Advisory Boards System.

(a) The Source Selection Advisory Boards System (SSABS) shall be used by all operating units and Departmental offices for evaluating competitive negotiated procurement proposals when:

(1) The estimated value of the procurement is expected to exceed $1,000,000 or,

(2) The estimated value of the immediate procurement is expected to be less than $1,000,000, but continuing related procurements are foreseeable and the cumulative total may exceed $1,000,000 or,

(3) The estimated value of the procurement is not expected to exceed

$1,000,000 but the head of the requisitioning office or activity, either independently or at the request of the contracting officer, determines in writing that SSABS processing is desirable and would be cost effective. Such written determinations shall be forwarded to the cognizant contracting officer for inclusion in the official procurement file.

(b) Procurements which are formally advertised or noncompetitively negotiated and procurements for Architect-Engineer Services are specifically excluded from consideration for SSABS Action.

(c) The detailed operating procedures for Source Selection Advisory Boards Systems are contained in Department Administrative Order DAO 208-15 and in the specific implementing instructions of each Departmental office or operating unit.

(Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended (40 U.S.C. 486(c)), as delegated by the Secretary in Department Order 10-5)

[43 FR 22039, May 23, 1978]

(a) All Departmental employees should be instructed to welcome and encourage inquiries relative to the Department's missions, needs and methods of operation and to refer inquiries to the program or technical offices concerned with the subject matter of an inquiry. Any inquiry which indicates the possibility of or may lead to procurement action shall be promptly directed to the head of the procuring activity for processing coordination. Employees should be further instructed: (1) To advise inquirers not to submit proposals before communicating with the appropriate control point (see § 13-4.908) and; (2) to immediately forward all unsolicited proposals received to the appropriate control points.

(b) Control Point Officials shall provide a properly completed Department Form CD-330 (Instructions for Sub

mission of Unsolicited Proposals),' along with a copy of the publication, How to Sell to the Department of Commerce and any additional material prescribed by their operating unit or Departmental office to each inquirer whose inquiry may result in submission of an unsolicited proposal.

§ 13-4.908 Agency points of contact.

Heads of Procuring Activities or their designees shall serve as control points for coordination, receipt and handling of unsolicited proposals. The Director, Office of Procurement and Automatic Data Processing Management is the control point for unsolicited proposals which are of interest to a Departmental office or operating unit that does not have an internal procuring activity and for proposals which are of interest to more than one Departmental office or operating unit.

§ 13-4.909 Receipt, review and evaluation. (a) Control Point Officials shall acknowledge receipt of unsolicited proposals within ten (10) working days by a letter using the following format: DEAR

:

This is to acknowledge receipt of your unsolicited proposal dated and to

advise you of the policies of the Department of Commerce for treatment of unsolicited proposals.

The Department encourages submission of ideas, concepts or suggestions which may apply to any Commerce activity. Such submissions often help us to accomplish our various missions more efficiently or effectively.

When ideas are truly original or unique and germane to the missions of the Department, they may cause the Department to enter into a contractual relationship with the submitter. In other cases, where proposals do not contain proprietary information and the Department decides to implement the suggestions contained therein, the Department is free to enter into any resultant contracts by means of normal competitive procurement processes. The Department's acceptance of an unsolicited proposal for evaluation purposes does not imply a promise to pay, a recognition of novelty or originality, nor a promise to restrict the use of

'The Department form CD-330 will not be published as a part of these regulations. However, the original form is on file with the original of this document in the Office of the Federal Register.

information

to which the Government would otherwise be entitled. If your proposal contains information which you or your organization wishes to be used only for evaluation and not disclosed for other purposes, you must specifically identify such data by including the following legend on the title page and by marking each sheet containing restricted data with the legend contained in parentheses below:

USE AND DISCLOSURE OF DATA

This data shall not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or, disclosed in whole or in part for any purpose other than to evaluate the proposal: Provided, That if a contract is awarded to this offeror as a result of or in connection with the submission of this data, the Government shall have the right to duplicate, use, or disclose the data to the extent provided in the contract. This restriction does not limit the Government's right to use information contained in the data if it is obtainable from another source without restriction. The data subject to this restriction is contained in sheets

(Use or

disclosure of proposal data is subject to the restriction on the title page of this Proposal.)

Proposals or parts thereof submitted without the appropriate restrictive legends prescribed above may be handled as if free of all restrictions. If your proposal contains a restrictive endorsement or notice other than the ones prescribed above, you must either correct such notice or remove the restricted material prior to any evaluations by the Department.

You are requested to acknowledge this letter and to indicate whether or not you wish your proposal to be evaluated. Pending a reply from you, your proposal will not be accepted for evaluation, but will be held in safekeeping.

Sincerely,

(b) Upon receipt of a response to the letter prescribed in paragraph (a) above, requesting evaluation, Control Point Officials shall review the proposal in accordance with 41 CFR 14.909(b) (1) and (2) and 1-4.913(b) and shall coordinate processing and evaluation of the proposal in accordance with 41 CFR 1-4.909 (c), (d) and (e) and the following:

(1) The original and each copy of the unsolicited proposal shall be covered by a sheet of paper marked with the notice contained in 41 CFR 1-4.913 (c) (or as such notice is modified pursuant to circumstances described under 41 CFR 1-4.913 (d) or (e)), unless the offeror gives a clear written

indication that no restrictions on the disclosure or use of the data contained in the proposal are desired.

(2) Within ten (10) working days after receipt of an unsolicited proposal which conforms to the requirements of this DOCPR Subpart, Control Point Officials shall forward a copy of the proposal along with a Department Form CD-331 (Instructions for Technical Evaluation of Unsolicited Proposals) to the appropriate technical or program office for evaluation. If more than one Department activity may have interest in a particular proposal, copies of the proposal shall be circulated to each interested office.

(3) Program or technical offices receiving unsolicited proposals for evaluation shall conduct their evaluations in accordance with this DOCPR Subpart, 41 CFR Subpart 1-4.9, Department Form CD-331 (see paragraph (b)(2) of this section) and with any additional policies provided by the cognizant operating unit or Departmental office.

(4) Evaluations shall be completed and recommendations submitted to the Control Point Official within sixty (60) working days after receipt of a proposal for evaluation. All copies of the unsolicited proposal shall be returned to the Control Point Official with the completed evaluation recommendations.

(5) Unsolicited proposals and any material contained therein shall not be duplicated nor circulated outside of the evaluating office and shall be closely safeguarded to prevent disclosure of any restrictive data. Only Control Point Officials or their designees are permitted to duplicate unsolicited proposals and then only to facilitate evaluation by more than one technical entity or multiple evaluations within one technical entity.

§ 13-4.910 Method of procurement.

(a) Control Point Officials shall return all copies of unsolicited proposals not recommended for noncompetitive procurement action to the submit

2The Department Form CD-331 will not be published as a part of these regulations. However, the original form is on file with the original of this document in the Office of the Federal Register.

ters along with reasons for the return in accordance with 41 CFR 1-4.910.

(b) Unsolicited proposals which are acceptable and recommended for noncompetitive procurement together with appropriate requisition documents shall be forwarded by Control Point Officials to an appropriate contracting office for procurement action. If multiple requests for procurement are received pursuant to evaluations of the same unsolicited proposal, procurement actions shall be combined wherever practicable.

Subpart 13-4.50-Procurement Support for Major Systems Acquisitions

§ 13-4.5001 General.

Basic management and program policies and procedures for acquisition of major systems are contained in OBM Circular A-109 and DAO 208-3. In addition, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) Pamphlet No. 1 contains further guidance for application of OMB Circular A-109 and DOCPR 13-1.450-4 provides for reporting major systems procurement plans by program managers. Generally, the procurement guidelines contained in OFPP Pamphlet No. 1 dated August 1976, should be followed wherever practicable in the procurement phases of major systems acquisitions. This DOCPR Subpart shall serve to implement and supplement the above described document.

§ 13-4.5002 Major systems acquisition procurement phases.

There are four interdependent procurement phases to be performed in succession for acquisition of major systems. They are: (a) Alternative systems design procurement, (b) Procurement of competitive systems demonstrations, (c) Contracting for full scale development of the major system, and (d) Contracting for production of identical additional systems. Generally, traditional negotiated procurement practices and methods should be used in accomplishing each of the above procurement phases. However, the following subsections provide additional guidelines and procedures which shall be followed to enhance effective acquisitions of major systems.

8 13-4.5002-1 Procurement of alternative systems designs.

(a) The initial procurement effort for acquisition of a major system is to solicit competitive proposals for developing alternative systems designs. Parallel short term contracts for development of systems designs shall be negotiated with and awarded to as many qualified offerors as funding restraints and other considerations permit.

(b) Each request for proposals (RFP) for alternative systems designs shall contain a provision indicting the possibility of future contingent procurements and requiring the offeror's participation in the competitive demonstration procurement phase, if the offeror's proposal is determined to be acceptable to the major system acquisition effort. Following is a sample clause which will accommodate these requirements:

NOTICE OF Requirement TO PARTICIPATE IN LATER PROCUREMENT

This solicitation and resulting contracts represent the first procurement phase in an overall Major System Acquisition plan which may require future related procurements. Awards will be made to as many offerors, whose proposals are determined to be acceptable, as funding restraints and other program limitations or considerations may permit. Only those offerors who are awarded contracts pursuant to this solicitation will be eligible for later related procurements. Accordingly, the offeror, by accepting award under this solicitation, agrees to participate in a possible subsequent procurement for competitive, prototype or model system demonstrations.

§ 13-4.5002-2 Procurement of competitive systems demonstrations.

(a) Systems demonstration contracts shall be negotiated with as many alternative system design phase contractors, whose systems designs have been selected for demonstration, as available funding will permit.

(b) Each contract for competitive demonstration shall contain a provision requiring the contractor to:

(1) Submit a plan for the necessary plant and equipment to accomplish full-scale development and limited production of the demonstrated system. This plan may involve purchase or lease arrangements, teaming