Subpart 5115.3 - Source Selection

Contracting officers will conduct source selections for architect-engineering services in accordance with FAR part 36.601.

The senior procurement executive may approve, in accordance with Paragraph 1.2.4 of the Department of Defense Source Selection Procedures, waivers for solicitations valued below $1 billion. See Appendix GG for further delegation.

(a)(i) Table 15-1 designates the Army source selection authority appointments for FAR-based acquisitions.

TABLE 15-1, Source Selection Authority (SSA) Appointments for FAR-Based Acquisitions
SSA Designations	Appoint ing Authority
Acquisitions for systems and services, acquired through the Defense Acquisition System, for which milestone decision authority (or other decision authority) is at the Army Acquisition Executive (AAE) or Office of the Secretary of Defense level IAW the applicable Adaptive Acquisition Framework DoDI.	AAE, or as delegated
Other service acquisitions with a total planned dollar value of $500 million or more, or service acquisitions identified by the ASA(ALT) as a special interest. See DoDI 5000.74 and AR 70-13.	DASA(P) or Senior Services Manager
All other acquisitions for which formal source selection procedures are used.	HCA delegable to the SCO (Note 1)
Notes: 1. The HCA or SCO must coordinate with the responsible Program Executive Officer prior to nominating or, as applicable, appointing an SSA for a source selection in support of an Army acquisition program. 2. Appointment of selection officials for Other Transactions Agreements shall follow the Army’s Other Transaction policy.

(ii) Contracting activities shall submit nominations for SSA appointment to the AAE, DASA(P) or Senior Services Manager as indicated in (a)(i) of this section. Each nomination must include the following:

(A) A memorandum from the HCA or SCO to the DASA(P) requesting the appointment of the nominee as SSA.

(B) A biography of the SSA nominee detailing the training, knowledge, and experience that qualifies them for this appointment.

(C) A memorandum for the record signed by the supporting legal office, ethics counselor, detailing the ethics briefing conducted with the nominee for this source selection, and verification the nominee’s final disclosure report has been reviewed and not potential conflicts of interest were identified.

(D) Request for Source Selection Appointment documents for DASA(P) or AAE signature should be sent encrypted email to: usarmy.pentagon.hqda-asa-alt.list.saal-ps-staff@army.mil .

(b)(2) Army SSAs shall utilize Appendix AA, Army Source Selection Supplement (AS3), when conducting competitive, negotiated source selections. A source selection plan is required for all competitive, negotiated acquisitions where the basis of award includes factors in addition to cost or price. Army SSAs must use the standard rating tables as detailed in the DoD Source Selection Procedures, to include the colors and adjectives.

(S-90) The appointment of an individual to serve as the SSA shall be commensurate with the complexity and dollar value of the acquisition. For acquisitions with a total estimated value of $100 million or more, the SSA shall be an individual other than the contracting officer. For all other acquisitions, the contracting officer may serve as the SSA in accordance with FAR 15.303 unless the agency head appoints another individual.

(S-91) The Source Selection Evaluation Board chairperson is responsible for tailoring the reporting and documentary requirements in accordance with the AS3, and overseeing the source selection training for their source selection team.

(S-92) Contracting officers will assist program executive officers (PEOs), program managers (PMs), or other program or functional proponents to –

(1) Develop and implement the acquisition strategy;

(2) Prepare and obtain approval of the source selection plan before issuing the solicitation; and

(3) Recommend an official as the SSA, when the AAE has delegated authority to appoint the SSA.

(S-93) PEOs, PMs, or other program or functional proponents provide the necessary funds for salaries, overtime, temporary duty travel, and other expenses for the source selection. In addition, PEOs, PMs, or other proponents may also provide office space, administrative equipment, clerical support, and other necessary administrative support to personnel involved in the source selection.

(b)(2)(A) Only the absolute minimum number of factors necessary for evaluation of proposals shall be established. When appropriate, the SSA may subdivide source selection factors into subfactors. On rare occasions, the SSA may further subdivide a subfactor into elements, if needed.

(B) As stated in the AS3, evaluation factors and subfactors must be definable in readily understood qualitative terms (i.e., adjectival, colors, or other indicators, but not numbers) and represent the key areas of importance for consideration. Numerical weighting (i.e., assigning points or percentages to evaluation factors and subfactors) is not an authorized method of expressing the relative importance of the factors and subfactors.

(d) When the Government intends to evaluate the cost of future production or performance beyond the instant contract, and to include these costs as part of the basis of selection and award, clearly specify the evaluation procedures for such costs in the solicitation. Additionally, contracting officers must specify in the solicitation the Government’s procedures and methodologies for developing any estimates before using any of the associated cost estimates for evaluating future or life cycle costs.

(a) If the request for proposal identifies a threshold and objective performance for any of the requirements, the contracting officer must inform the offerors how the source selection team will evaluate the objective performance requirements and credit the performance above the threshold requirement.

(1) Cost or price evaluation. Do not score price or cost or combine it with other non-price or cost related aspects of the proposal evaluation.

(2) Past performance evaluation. The Contractor Performance Assessment Rating System is available via the Internet at https://www.cpars.gov .

(3) Technical evaluation. When divergent evaluations exist, and none of the evaluators have misinterpreted or misunderstood any aspects of the proposals, consider providing the SSA with written majority and minority opinions.

All exchanges with offerors after receipt of proposals must clearly identify the types of exchanges, i.e., clarifications, communications or discussions.

(c) Competitive Range. The SSA must approve the competitive range determination.

The SSA shall prepare a source selection decision document for all source selections conducted using this part. The source selection decision document must reflect the SSA’s integrated assessment and decision. The document must be the single summary document supporting selection of the best value proposal consistent with the stated evaluation criteria. It must clearly explain the decision and document the reasoning the SSA used to reach a decision. The document should be releasable to the Government Accountability Office and others authorized to receive proprietary and source selection information.

(a) The head of the contracting activity is authorized to perform the functions at DFARS 215.371-5. See Appendix GG for further delegation.