AFFARS IG5308.7

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Informational Guidance

IG5308.7
Acquisition from Nonprofit Agencies Employing People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled

July 2004

IG5308.705 Procedures

(a) Definitions. A “contractor” under the Javits-Wagner-O’Day (JWOD) Act is known as a participating Nonprofit Agency (NPA)—also called a Community Rehabilitation Program (CRP). NPAs work with a Central Nonprofit Agency (CNA). National Industries for the Blind (NIB) is the CNA that works with associated nonprofit agencies that serve people who are blind, while NISH-associated CRPs serve people with a range of severe disabilities. The Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled (Committee) is the independent federal agency responsible for administering the JWOD Program.

(b) Adding Products/Services to the Procurement List (PL). Initial contacts by a JWOD-associated NPA or CNA with a contracting office are generally to obtain information to use in determining whether or not it can produce a commodity or perform a service. These contacts can occur at any time and alone are not sufficient to suspend planned purchasing actions. This determination is made by the contracting activity after discussions with the Committee staff based on the procurement milestones and the Committee staff’s estimate of when the item will be submitted to the Committee for its decision on the inclusion of the item on the PL.

(c) Once a requirement has been identified as a candidate for addition to the PL, the following steps are taken:

(d) After the effective date, the Contracting Activity and the NPA may enter into a contract for the product or service using JWOD authority as the sole source justification. However, if an existing commercial contract has options, the Contracting Officer at his or her discretion has the ability to exercise all such options, and should not forego such options simply because of the PL addition. However, if there are other reasons warranting that the option not be exercised, or if all options have expired, it is mandatory to contract with the Committee-designated NPA as a result of the PL addition.

(e) A CNA and/or NPA may have been assigned a requirement internally for development; however, the requirement may not be added to the PL by the time the solicitation is ready for release. In this event, the Contracting Officer should contact the CNA and inform it of the intent to release the solicitation and provide the intended release date. The CNA will provide the status of the addition package process. If a Committee decision is not expected by the intended release date, the Contracting Officer should determine, based on the information received from the CNA, whether or not to delay issuance of the solicitation. Common sense should be exercised in these instances; however, the Contracting Officer’s judgment should prevail in these cases.

(f) If the Committee staff indicates that it is in the final stages of processing the item for addition to the PL, a solicitation should not be issued without prior approval of SAF/AQCK.

(g) Certain additional factors are relevant when a cost comparison is required in determining whether or not a service will be purchased. In such cases, the in-house estimate should be prepared and sealed prior to receipt of the NPA pricing data. Once the sealed in-house estimate is received, the procuring activity should inform the CNA who will forward the NPA pricing package concurrently to the Committee and the procuring activity. The NPA pricing package should cover the period plus two additional years. The Committee staff will discuss the package with the procuring activity and obtain its concurrence or nonconcurrence. The proposed action is then processed by the Committee staff for a decision by the Committee. If the Committee approves the addition, the staff will transmit to the procuring activity a “Notice of addition” which includes the approved prices. The cost comparison should not be made until after receipt of the notification that the item has been added to the PL. If the cost comparison results in retention of performance in-house, the Committee price has no consequence. If the resultant decision is to contract for performance, the contract should be prepared and transmitted to the NPA for performance.

(h) NPAs are not currently authorized to participate in small business set-aside acquisitions, since they are nonprofit and do not meet the definition for a small business.

(i) Randolph-Sheppard Act (RSA) vendors are not JWOD NPAs. RSA vendors are for-profit entities contracted through the state and are not authorized to participate in small business set-aside acquisitions since they do not meet the definition of a small business. Do not code RSA contract actions as “JWOD” or “NPA” in the DD350 system. RSA is a Department of Education activity and should be coded as “Other Educational.”

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