# Subpart 970.09—Contractor Qualifications

## 970.0905 Organizational and consultant conflicts of interest.

Management and operating contracts shall contain an organizational conflict of interest clause substantially similar to the clause at 952.209-72, Organizational Conflicts of Interest, and which is appropriate to the statement of work of the individual contract. In addition, the contracting officer shall assure that the clause contains appropriate restraints on intra-corporate relations between the contractor's organization and personnel operating the Department's facility and its parent corporate body and affiliates. Such restraints shall include personnel access to the facility, technical transfer of information from the facility, and the availability from the facility of other advantages flowing from performance of the contract. The contracting officer is responsible for ensuring that M&O contractors adopt policies and procedures in the award of subcontracts that will meet the Department's need to safeguard against a biased work product and an unfair competitive advantage. To this end, the organizational conflicts of interest clause in management and operating contracts shall include Alternate I. Contracting Officers should refer to Subpart 909.5.

## 970.0970 Performance guarantees.

## 970.0970-1 Determination of responsibility.

(a) In the award of a management and operating contract, the contracting officer shall determine that the prospective contractor is a responsible contractor and is capable of providing all necessary financial, personnel, and other resources in performance of the contract.

(b) Department of Energy (DOE) contracts with entities that have been created solely for the purpose of performing a specific management and operating contract. Generally, such newly created entities will have very limited financial and other resources. In such instances, when making the determination of responsibility required under this section, the contracting officer may evaluate the financial resources of other entities only to the extent that those entities are legally bound, jointly and severally if more than one, by means of a performance guarantee or other equivalent enforceable commitment to supply the necessary resources to the prospective contractor and to assume all contractual obligations of the prospective contractor. A performance guarantee should be the means used unless an equivalent degree of commitment can be obtained by an alternative means.

(c) The guaranteeing corporate entity(ies) must be found to have sufficient resources in order to satisfy its guarantee.

## 970.0970-2 Solicitation provision.

The contracting officer shall insert the provision at 970.5209-1, Requirement for Guarantee of Performance, in solicitations when the awardee will be required to be organized solely for performance of the requirement.