Skyway Wire
Case Study: A Tale of Two CPARS
I freely admit that most of the time while I was a CO, I really didn’t pay much attention to CPARS ratings. While doing operational contracting work, the dollar value rarely exceeded the threshold...
Contracting Officer’s Authority and Discretion
The case I relate in this article is an illustration of the authority that is vested in a contracting officer and the discretion that the CO can exercise in the course of executing their duties,...
Proposal Storm Surge
It’s hurricane season here in Florida (Dorian is on its way to the East coast of Florida). Well, it’s hurricane season everywhere I suppose, we just seem to be more aware of it “down here.” My point...
The Proposal Is Submitted. Now what?
Proposals take a lot of time and effort to put together and submit, especially in the services world. Often, they require detailed written technical approaches on how you are going to perform the...
Organizational Conflicts of Interest
The US Government is a unique customer. To maintain the public’s confidence, the Government mandates at FAR 3.101-1 that its business be conducted “with complete impartiality and with preferential...
Pricing Is Too Important to Be Last
Regardless of the evaluation criteria, most awards are heavily based on price. New bidders in the government marketplace too often wait too long to begin working on their price proposals. It’s true...
There is No “One Way” To Do This
Recently some of the Skyway members commented that in the forum, there sometimes seemed to be conflicting answers from the former contracting officers who work for Skyway. I’ve found that, after...
Case Study: Blanket Purchase Agreements
In a previous article, I related my experiences in contracting for a hotel rooms cell phones, and rental cars in Jordan, in support of a military exercise being conducted there. To support that...
Nabbing End of Fiscal Year “Fall Out” Money
The government fiscal year (1 Oct – 30 Sep) is full of opportunities. However, certain windows of time within each year are better than others for getting funds added to your contract. For example,...
Beneficial Occupancy
In a recent Skyway staff meeting, I mentioned that I had nearly finished the construction of a new, improved chicken coop. (NOTE – My family and I live on a small acreage that is almost, but not...
Overchoice
Ever noticed how many different types of Cheerios there are at the grocery store? At the risk of sounding “old”, I find myself aghast at the number of choices compared to when I was a veracious...
Contractors Participating in Source Selection
It has been discussed many times in the Ask a CO forum about the blending of contractor and government personnel in the workplace. I recently got a call from a Naval Officer who had been one of my...
Proposal Color Teams – Part 3
This is the third in a series about proposal reviews. The purpose of a review is to improve the quality of the final proposal document and the previous two blog posts explained why reviews are both...
I Just Want to Help!
Service contracts provide an opportunity for contractors and government personnel to get close. Contractors get to be part of the team and take pride and ownership in the work that they are...
Proposal Color Teams – Part 2
The first blog on this topic laid out all the ways that color teams don't work. It would be easy to conclude that proposal teams should simply skip this step in the interest of efficiency and...
Negotiating Terms and Conditions
Government prime contracts nearly always contain pre-determined terms and conditions from the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and agency-specific FAR Supplements. There is little opportunity...