Meeting Government-Owned Property Management Contract Requirements

For small businesses involved in development and manufacturing efforts under government contracts, or those who are pursing research and development involving large scale systems, the government property topic often arises.

In general, government contractors are required to provide all that is necessary to fulfill the scope of work on a government contract. However, under time and materials and cost plus contracts where the acquiring agency has made substantial investment in manufacturing aids, special test equipment or apparatus, title to such items will fall to the government.

Title falls to the contractor on firm, fixed price contracts where the cost is base lined at contract award and is assumed to include all that is required to produce the end item when it was bid.

Government property must be stored separately from contractor property when not in use, identified in the facility inventory system as government owned and have government property tags.

Rent – Free Use of government property accountable under one contract must be requested on a non-interference basis from the owning contracting officer before use on another contact and the using contract must reference the approval.

The government may elect to charge rent for use of government property under commercial or foreign contracts. The process for calculating and paying rent is specified in FAR 52.245-9.

The principal FAR Clauses for government Property are 52.245-1 and 52.245-2. If you are undertaking a contract involving government property please read these FAR Clauses. Within these clauses are requirements for inventory, disposal and disposition of government property.

FAR - Government Property Clauses

Government property may be furnished by the acquiring agency with a contract award and may be placed in the care of the contractor. In those cases accountability for the items, together with associated maintenance may be assigned to the contract and reassignment of the property must occur before the contract can be closed out at completion.

Making an Astute Bid/No Bid Decision

Government contract proposal preparation is time consuming and can be costly. Meeting the agency Request for Proposal (RFP) requirements with a responsive proposal can be well worth the effort if a winning strategy can be formulated. 

When considering submitting a proposal to a given government solicitation, conduct a bid/no bid exercise. By going through that process you will begin formulating your win strategy or you will discover that you should not bid this job for lack of such a strategy.

 The elements of the process are discussed below in the form of questions to ask yourself against topics for key consideration.  Affirmative or non-affirmative answers to the topical questions and ability to fill in the blanks below will drive your decision to bid or not bid a solicitation.

A. Customer:
Do you know this customer? Yes __ No ___
Does this customer know you? Yes___No ___
Do you have any idea of the available funding for which the customer has obtained authorization? Yes___No ____
Specify the marketing contacts which have been made with the customer thus far:
Date:
Contact:

B. Supplies and Services:
Specify the supplies and services to be delivered in the prospective contract:

Line Item (s):

Description:

Are supplies and services in the RFP Statement of work a good match for what the company sells? Yes ___No ___
Is the RFP Statement of Work specific enough to identify risks? Yes____No ____
Is the RFP schedule specific enough to determine the delivery requirements? Yes____No____
Can the delivery schedule in the RFP be met? Yes ___No _____
Specify the delivery schedule for the prospective contract:

Line Item:

Delivery Date:

C. Contract Type/Value/Start/End Date:
Does the proposed contract type (FFP, CP, T&M, etc) suit the nature of the work? Yes___ No ___
Specify the contract type for this program: _______________.
Are there any unusual terms and conditions specified in the government RFP? Yes ____No___
Specify any unusual terms and conditions: ___________________________________________

What is the Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) value of the prospective contract? $___________.
What is the anticipated start date of the contract? ________.
What is the anticipated end date of the contract? ________.

D. Company Strengths: 

Is this prospective contract for effort in which the company has strong skills? Yes____No ____
Specify the strengths the company will utilize in meeting the product specification or statement of work:

E. Company Weaknesses:

Are there any company weaknesses in meeting the product specification or statement of work? Yes ___No ___
Specify any weaknesses for which the company must compensate and manage associated risks:

F. Teaming Arrangements (If any):
Does company plan to team with other companies in the performance of the prospective contract? Yes ___No ___
Identify the other team member companies:

Will your company be a prime or a subcontractor? Prime___Subcontractor ____
Have NDA's and Teaming Agreements been executed? Yes____No ______

G. Competition:
Is this a sole source set-aside procurement to your company? Yes____No____
If this is a competitive procurement, identify the prospective competition and their associated strengths/weaknesses:

H. Win Strategy:
Identify the proposal features and themes which will be utilized in the proposal as discriminators to win this program:

Management:

Technical:

Cost:

I. Proposal Budget:
Estimate the man hours and dollars for proposal labor, any travel expenses, shipping, packaging, samples and other expenses associated with preparing the proposal. The government does not reimburse the contractor for proposal preparation under the subsequent contract. Proposal expenses must be included in the cost center overhead or G&A and accounted for as marketing expense allocated across the cost center or the company.

Labor Hours __
Labor Dollars $______
Material _______
Travel _______
Reproduction _______
Samples (if any) _______
Packaging/Binding/Ship _______
TOTAL $_______

J. Analysis: 

If you can answer "YES" to at least 5 of the questions under paragraphs A through D above, it is likely you should bid this procurement.

If the answers to 7 of the 10 "YES" or "NO" questions under paragraphs A through D above are "NO" it is unlikely you should bid this procurement unless the answer to G is "YES". Even then, examine your answers and carefully review whether this business is suitable for your company. 

If the answer to E is "YES", it is unlikely you will bid this procurement successfully unless the answer to G is "YES". Even then, determine how you will overcome the weaknesses you have identified in your company associated with doing this work before you decide to bid it. 

Carefully compare the competitive analysis under Item G to the win strategy under H before you make your final decision.

K. Decision: 

BID _____

No Bid _______