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Subpart 9-4.10 Architect-Engineer Services

$9-4.1000 Scope of subpart.

This subpart contains DOE policies and procedures for the procurement of professional architect-engineer services by contract. Architect-engineer services are defined in §9-1.5403(e) and further defined in FPR 1-4.1002(c).

$9-4.1001 General policy.

Pursuant to FPR 1-4.1001, it is the policy of the DOE to publicly announce all requirements for architect-engineer services, and to negotiate contracts for architect-engineer services on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualification for the type of professional services required at fair and reasonable prices.

$9-4.1002 Definitions.

The term "discussions" includes telephone conversations, exchange of correspondence, or interviews. The term "interview," as used in FPR 1-1.1003–7(b)(9), Note 63, means "discussions" as defined above.

$9-4.1003 Public announcements.

To ensure the broadest publicity concerning DOE's interest in obtaining architect-engineer services, a notice of intention to contract for architect-engineer services shall be prepared and published for each procurement of architect-engineer services, in accordance with the requirements of FPR 1-1.1003-3(c) and (d) and 1-1.1003–7(b)(9).

§9-4.1004 Selection.

$9-4.1004-1 Establishment of architect-engineer evaluation boards.

Architect-engineer evaluation boards will be used for the selection of professional architectengineer services when the estimated cost of the contract is $500,000 or more. Except as provided by this subpart, the use of architect-engineer evaluation boards shall be governed by the general policies and procedures contained in FPR 1-4.1004-1 and 1-4.100-2 and the policies concerning the selection of such contractors by board process contained in internal DOE Directives. These policies and procedures are also applicable to the selection of Architect-Engineers for procurements of less then $500,000. However, less formal procedures and practices may be followed, depending upon the circumstances in each particular selection, at the discretion of the selecting official. The Source Selection Official, as designated in §9-3.805-50, shall establish an architiect-engineer evaluation board and select the contractor. When the evaluation board completes its functions, it shall prepare a report, including its recommendations, and submit it along with the solicitation, selection criteria, weights, and other information and documents, as may be requested, to the Source Selection Official and through the Senior Procurement Official, Headquarters, or his designee when the Source Selection Official is with Headquarters. The Senior Procurement Official, Headquarters, or designee shall arrange for appropriate Headquarters review of the report and prepare an action memorandum to the Source Selection Official for his consideration in making his selection.

The evaluation board's duties will ordinarily include preparation of the public announcement and development of evaluation criteria, based upon architect-engineer services requirements established by the appropriate DOE program and staff organization; development of evaluation criteria weighting; review and evaluation of Standard Forms 254 and 255; review and evalua

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tion of information from other sources, such as appraisals of performance on previous contracts awarded to the architect-engineer firm; development of additional information requirements and conduct of discussions with firms selected for further consideration; determination of ranking of the firms evaluated; preparation of the evaluation board report and presentation of the board's findings, or recommendations, to the selecting official.

The public announcement covering the requirement for architect-engineer services, criteria and relative weightings, as developed by the evaluation board, shall be submitted to the Senior Procurement Official, Headquarters, or designee for appropriate review and comment prior to issuance of the announcement, where it is a Headquarters' selection or requires Headquarters' review and approval of the contract action. Commerce Business Daily announcements shall be prepared in accordance with FPR 1-1.10.

89-4.1004-3 Evaluation criteria.

Contracting Officers or architect-engineer evaluation boards shall apply the evaluation criteria contained in this subsection, as appropriate, and any special criteria developed for individual selections. When special and additional criteria are to be used, they shall be set forth in the public announcement required by §9-4.1003, and a written justification for their use shall be placed in the DOE file maintained for the project.

(a) General qualifications, including:

(1) Reputation and standing of the firm and its principal members;

(2) Experience and technical competence of the firm in comparable work;

(3) Past record in performing work for DOE, other Government agencies, and private industry, including projects or contracts implemented with no overruns; performance from the standpoint of cost including cost overruns (last 5 years); the nature, extent, and effectiveness of contractor's cost reduction program; quality of work; and ability to meet schedules including schedule overruns (last 5 years) (where applicable);

(4) The volume of past and present workloads;

(5) Interest of company management in the project and expected participation and contribution of top officials;

(6) Adequacy of central or branch office facilities for the proposed work, including facilities for any special services that may be required;

(7) Geographic location of the home office and familiarity with the locality in which the project is located:

(b) Personnel and organization.

(1) Specific experience and qualifications of personnel proposed for assignment to the project, including, as required for various phases of the work:

(i) technical skills and abilities in planning, organizing, executing, and controlling; (ii) abilities in overall project coordination and management; and

(iii) experience in working together as a team;

(2) Proposed project organization, delegations of responsibility and assignments of authority;

(3) Availability of additional competent, regular employees for support of the project, and the depth and size of the organization so that any necessary expansion or acceleration could be handled adequately;

(4) Experience and qualifications of proposed consultants and subcontractors; and

(5) Ability to assign adequate qualified personnel from the proposed organization (firms own organization, joint-venture organizations, consulting firms etc.) including key personnel and a competent supervising representative.

(c) Additional (or special) criteria developed for the specific project shall be considered and evaluated as may be appropriate.

89-4.1004-50 Collection of data on architect-engineer firms.

DOE offices that regularly procure architect-engineer services shall collect and maintain current qualifications and performance data files on architect-engineer firms, including information on their past experience on various types of construction projects. Normally, Standard Form 254, Architect-Engineer and Related Services Questionnaire, shall be used for this purpose. Information from other sources, such as appraisals of performance of previous projects awarded to the firm, may also be included in the files.

§9-4.1004-51 Evaluation of qualifications and performance data.

(a) After the notice of intention to contract for architect-engineer services has been published and the date for submission of the standard forms has passed, the evaluation board and/or the selecting official shall review and evaluate the Standard Form 254 and the Standard Form 255, where applicable, submitted in response to the public announcement, and other Standard Forms 254 on file in the procuring office. Consideration should be given to requesting submission of a Standard Form 255 by qualified firms which fail to respond to the public announcement to assure adequate competition. Based on this evaluation, no less than three firms shall be selected for the purpose of holding discussions. It is not necessary to hold discussions with any firm that fails to submit a Standard Form 255, where required.

(b) Normally, only those firms which are compatible with the size and complexity of the job requirements should be considered for discussions; that is, for a small, relatively simple job, firms whose resources and qualifications are far in excess of the job requirements should not be considered, and where size and simplicity of the project permit, consideration should be limited to the geographic area of the project.

(c) Every opportunity and encouragement shall be given to small business and socially and economically disadvantaged firms. Toward this end, groups that propose to form a joint venture or engage the services of small consulting firms for portions of the effort shall be given full consideration by the evaluation board and the selection official of their combined qualifications.

$9-4.1004-52 Conducting discussions.

After three or more firms have been selected in accordance with §9-4.1004-51, discussions shall be held with these firms regarding anticipated concepts and the relative utility of alternative methods of approach to furnishing the required services. These discussions may be used to obtain additional qualification, performance, and management data, and other information needed to properly apply the evaluation criteria and evaluate the firms under consideration. §9-4.1004-53 Use of requests for supplemental information.

(a) Firms indicate their general interest in providing services by annual submittal of Standard Form 254; and indicate specific interest in providing services for a particular project, in response to the public announcement, by submittal of Standard Form 255 (and Standard Form 254 if not previously submitted). Supplemental information may be solicited as a means of initiating the discussion phase of the architect-engineer selection process. This may be particularly appropriate for the larger or more complex projects where sufficient qualification and performance data are not available from the Standard Forms 254 and 255, and additional information beyond that already furnished is needed to apply the selection criteria and evaluate and rank the firms. Firms should not be requested to furnish the same information previously submitted

on Standard Forms 254 and 255, nor should they be requested to submit preliminary designs, plans and drawings, except in appropriate circumstances involving design competitions.

(b) Requests for supplemental information shall not request firms to submit price proposals. Such requests can be used only to obtain information that will enable DOE to select the best qualified contractor.

(c) When a request for supplemental information is made, some wording should be included to identify it with the discussion phase of the selection process, similar to the following: “As a result of our evaluation of material on file with this office and the SF's 254 and/or 255 submitted in response to Public Announcement we have selected your firm for further consideration for selection and award of a contract to perform the architect-engineer services which are described below. The principal purpose of this request is to obtain additional specific qualification and performance data concerning your firm.”

§9-4.1004-54 Selection of most highly qualified firm for negotiation.

Upon completion of discussions and evaluation of the firms that were selected for discussions, the board shall recommend to the selecting official, in order of preference, based upon the criteria in §9-4.1004-3 and any special criteria included in the public announcement, no less than three firms deemed to be the most highly qualified to provide the services required. The Standard Form 255 submitted by firms with which written or oral discussions were held should be retained in the selection file; all other Standard Forms 255 may be discarded 90 days after award. The selecting official shall then select the firm determined to be most highly qualified. Should the firm selected be other than that ranked highest in qualifications by the evaluation board, the selection official shall provide complete documentation of his decision which shall become part of the contract file.

§9-4.1004-55 Late submission of qualification and performance data.

The submissions requested and received as part of the architect-engineer selection process differ in substance from proposals received for other types of procurement. Consequently, the policies and procedures contained in FPR 1-3.802-1, FPR 1-3.802-2, and §9-3.802-1 concerning the consideration of late responses are not applicable to proposals submitted under the provisions of this subpart §9-4.10.

§9-4.1005 Negotiation procedures.

The Contracting Officer shall attempt to negotiate a contract with the firm designated by the selecting official at a compensation which he determines is fair and reasonable to the Government. If the Contracting Officer is unable to negotiate a satisfactory contract with the designated firm at a price he considers fair and reasonable to the Government, negotiations with that firm should be formally terminated. Negotiations should then be undertaken with the second most qualified firm as designated by the selecting official. Failing accord with the second firm, negotiations should be held with the next firm, and this procedure shall be continued until a satisfactory contract has been negotiated. If the Contracting Officer is unable to negotiate a contract with any of the selected firms, additional firms shall be selected in accordance with §9-4.1004, as appropriate, and negotiations shall continue in the manner described above.

§9-4.1005-3 Independent Government estimate.

Prior to the initiation of negotiations, the Head of the Procuring Activity or designee shall develop an independent Government estimate of the cost of the required architect-engineer services based on a detailed analysis of the costs expected to be generated by the work. Consideration shall be given to the estimated value of the services to be rendered, and to the scope, complexity, and nature of the project. The independent Government estimate shall be revised as required during negotiations to reflect changes in or clarification of the scope of the work to be performed by the architect-engineer. On construction projects, a fee estimate based on the application of percentage factors to project cost estimates of the various segments of the work involved may be developed for comparison purposes, but such a cost estimate shall not be used as a substitute for the independent Government estimate.

$9-4.1005-4 Architect-engineer's price proposal.

The Contracting Officer shall request the selected architect-engineer firm to submit its price proposal with supporting cost or pricing data in accordance with FPR 1-3.807-3 and 1-3.807-4. Revisions of the price and supporting cost or pricing data may be made as required during negotiations to reflect changes in or clarification of the scope of the work to be performed by the architect-engineer or findings derived from preaward audits conducted pursuant to FPR 1

3.809.

$9-4.1005-5 Contract price.

The Contracting Officer shall negotiate a price considered fair and reasonable based on a comparative study of the independent Government estimate and the architect-engineer's proposal. Significant differences between elements of the two figures and between the overall figures shall be discussed and the Contracting Officer shall ascertain the reasons therefor.

$9-4.1005-6 Record of negotiation.

Promptly at the conclusion of each negotiation, a memorandum setting forth the principal elements of the negotiation shall be prepared in accordance with the requirments of FPR 13.811, for use by the reviewing authorities and for inclusion in the contract file. The memorandum shall contain sufficient detail to reflect the significant considerations controlling the establishment of the price and other terms of the contract.

§9-4.1005-50 Exemption from limitations on fee for architect-engineer services.

Under the authority of section 602(d)(13) and (20) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended, the six percentum fee restriction shall not impair or affect contracts for architect-engineer services. This provision applies only to those former AEC functions and those of BPA now being performed by DOE.

$9-4.1006 Limitation on contracting with architect-engineer firms for construction work. See §9-1.54 and FPR 1-4.1006.

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