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Hello. I am wondering if anyone can link me to a website or guide on the Government Contracting world. I am interested in learning more about how it all works.
Things I want to know about:
-Bidding process for contracts
-Proposals
-Billing rates
-Prime contractor vs subcontractor
Hello. I am wondering if anyone can link me to a website or guide on the Government Contracting world. I am interested in learning more about how it all works.
Things I want to know about:
-Bidding process for contracts
-Proposals
-Billing rates
-Prime contractor vs subcontractor
Thanks
I can answer your questions, but they're kind of vague. First of all, when you say "Government", do you mean federal?
The reason I asked is that I worked for year in Procurement for a public agency, but it wasn't actually government. Every state or local agency is going to have information on their own websites and may have their own requirements, but in general, public contracting follows certain best practices designed to keep contracting fair and competitive while making best use of public funds. This has really gelled over the past fifteen years or so due to the history of corruption in public contracting,
In general:
Bids and RFPS are usually publicly advertised on the websites. The instructions for submission will be in the documents.
Using the engineering industry as an example:
Bids are when a precise scope of work, usually with contract drawings, are provided and the agency is asking for a price from everyone for the same exact work. This is usually the method for construction projects. There may be requirements the bidder has to meet, including work history and a background/vendor check, so therefore the bid is awarded to the "lowest QUALIFIED bidder". This prevents Joe's Garden Decks from being awarded a contract for a bridge spanning a river just because he submitted the lowest bid.
Proposals are more subjective. A Request for Proposal asks for submittals of proposals that meet certain criteria but are not as precise as a bid. For example, they might advertise an RFP to DESIGN that bridge with specific information required for the work, including the deliverables expected. In that case, they will ask for the Proposer's history of doing similar bridge design work, the names and resumes of the designers they will commit to the project, their technical and management approaches to performing this work. Again, they will likely have to meet prequal requirements demonstrating that they have done this before. They will submit a pricing schedule, but the award does not necessarily go to the lowest price but rather the Proposal that brings the best value. There is usually a scoring system and the scoring is done by a pre-selected committee and after the first round of scoring, there's a short list of firms who are then brought in for presentations to further demonstrate their proposals.
Billing rates are billing rates. Not sure what your question is. Some RFPs ask for fully-loaded billing rates including all overhead and profit, while others ask for a direct labor rate with a multiplier on top.
The Prime Contractor is the contractor holding the contract with the agency. The Subcontractor are entities who have a relationship with the Prime, not the agency, although the agency may have the right to approve them. In many cases, the Prime is required to sub out a certain percentage of the work to Minority or Women-owned businesses, lumped together and called Disadvantaged Business Enterprises when federal money is involved. The rules for what qualifies such firms to be certified vary from state to state and agency to agency, because they are based on disparity studies showing that the group is underrepresented in a given industry for the population in that area. All the agencies will also have a section on their websites with information about those certification processes, as well. Subcontracting is a great way to break in to public contracting. Again, go on the websites and find the lists of who holds the current contracts. Reach out to those entities. If you have an interest in subbing on a big project that's out for bid or RFP, call the agency's procurement department and see if you can get a planholder's list and find out who the big firms are going after the prime contract and then contact them. Sometimes it's listed on the advertisement page.
Look for "Vendor information" or "Doing business with" links on the websites. You can go to the federal government, but also look at your state and any other authorities in your area. For example, who runs your airports? Train systems? Who oversees the highways?
If this is not engineering or construction related, the rules are pretty much the same. Publicly advertised bids and RFPs. The public agencies buy office supplies, water, office furniture, janitorial services, phones, IT services, IT equipment, EVERYTHING. In some cases they buy train wheels, salt, falcon services (to chase other birds off runways, I'm not making this up), security equipment and services...you name it.
If you are a small business starting out, take advantage of the Small Business Administration services. They will help you and give you a lot of information. There are also usually events throughout the year designed to help small business do contracting work with public agencies.
One caveat. NOBODY is going to stroll up and hand you the contract. You have to do the legwork and you have to provide goods or services that somebody actually needs. And once you get a contract, do it well or you will get a bad record and be unable to get a reference. There are hundreds of others waiting to replace you.
And don't disregard that FAR link!
Last edited by Mightyqueen801; 12-20-2016 at 11:40 AM..
However, if talking "defense" or "national security needs" contracting, throw all the normal federal contracting processes, procedures and safeguards right out the window.
However, if talking "defense" or "national security needs" contracting, throw all the normal federal contracting processes, procedures and safeguards right out the window.
?? - what makes you say that...I assume this is just facetiousness - any Federal Contracting Officer who decided to ignore the FAR would find him or herself in a pile of doo-doo pretty quick...
However, if talking "defense" or "national security needs" contracting, throw all the normal federal contracting processes, procedures and safeguards right out the window.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GuyInSD
?? - what makes you say that...I assume this is just facetiousness - any Federal Contracting Officer who decided to ignore the FAR would find him or herself in a pile of doo-doo pretty quick...
There are cases where that would happen. If something is highly-sensitive or an emergency, they aren't going to go through the normal processes.
After 9/11, for example, the NYC Department of Design and Construction called in four contractors that they knew could appear with equipment right away ready to work and not worry about getting paid until down the road and divided the site into four quadrants, assigning a quadrant to each. The DDC didn't even have jurisdiction over the WTC site, which was owned by the Port Authority, but the head of the PA was dead, its headquarters was destroyed, and no one knew exactly who else in the organization was dead or alive in that moment. There were PA engineers who survived and stayed there and didn't go home for a week, but they needed someone else at that point to take immediate charge because there was still hope for rescues.
In other cases, if the field of experts is so limited that a competitive process is out of the question, they can negotiate with a contractor.
The majority of public contracting goes by the competitive process in some form or another, though.
This is a topic I am happy to forget, after 40 years of responding to RFPs. When I work now - which isn't much - I do it under a subcontract from a Project partner firm/institution. All I have to do is sign my contract with them and do the work, behind the scenes.
I can answer your questions, but they're kind of vague. First of all, when you say "Government", do you mean federal?
The reason I asked is that I worked for year in Procurement for a public agency, but it wasn't actually government. Every state or local agency is going to have information on their own websites and may have their own requirements, but in general, public contracting follows certain best practices designed to keep contracting fair and competitive while making best use of public funds. This has really gelled over the past fifteen years or so due to the history of corruption in public contracting,
In general:
Bids and RFPS are usually publicly advertised on the websites. The instructions for submission will be in the documents.
Using the engineering industry as an example:
Bids are when a precise scope of work, usually with contract drawings, are provided and the agency is asking for a price from everyone for the same exact work. This is usually the method for construction projects. There may be requirements the bidder has to meet, including work history and a background/vendor check, so therefore the bid is awarded to the "lowest QUALIFIED bidder". This prevents Joe's Garden Decks from being awarded a contract for a bridge spanning a river just because he submitted the lowest bid.
Proposals are more subjective. A Request for Proposal asks for submittals of proposals that meet certain criteria but are not as precise as a bid. For example, they might advertise an RFP to DESIGN that bridge with specific information required for the work, including the deliverables expected. In that case, they will ask for the Proposer's history of doing similar bridge design work, the names and resumes of the designers they will commit to the project, their technical and management approaches to performing this work. Again, they will likely have to meet prequal requirements demonstrating that they have done this before. They will submit a pricing schedule, but the award does not necessarily go to the lowest price but rather the Proposal that brings the best value. There is usually a scoring system and the scoring is done by a pre-selected committee and after the first round of scoring, there's a short list of firms who are then brought in for presentations to further demonstrate their proposals.
Billing rates are billing rates. Not sure what your question is. Some RFPs ask for fully-loaded billing rates including all overhead and profit, while others ask for a direct labor rate with a multiplier on top.
The Prime Contractor is the contractor holding the contract with the agency. The Subcontractor are entities who have a relationship with the Prime, not the agency, although the agency may have the right to approve them. In many cases, the Prime is required to sub out a certain percentage of the work to Minority or Women-owned businesses, lumped together and called Disadvantaged Business Enterprises when federal money is involved. The rules for what qualifies such firms to be certified vary from state to state and agency to agency, because they are based on disparity studies showing that the group is underrepresented in a given industry for the population in that area. All the agencies will also have a section on their websites with information about those certification processes, as well. Subcontracting is a great way to break in to public contracting. Again, go on the websites and find the lists of who holds the current contracts. Reach out to those entities. If you have an interest in subbing on a big project that's out for bid or RFP, call the agency's procurement department and see if you can get a planholder's list and find out who the big firms are going after the prime contract and then contact them. Sometimes it's listed on the advertisement page.
Look for "Vendor information" or "Doing business with" links on the websites. You can go to the federal government, but also look at your state and any other authorities in your area. For example, who runs your airports? Train systems? Who oversees the highways?
If this is not engineering or construction related, the rules are pretty much the same. Publicly advertised bids and RFPs. The public agencies buy office supplies, water, office furniture, janitorial services, phones, IT services, IT equipment, EVERYTHING. In some cases they buy train wheels, salt, falcon services (to chase other birds off runways, I'm not making this up), security equipment and services...you name it.
If you are a small business starting out, take advantage of the Small Business Administration services. They will help you and give you a lot of information. There are also usually events throughout the year designed to help small business do contracting work with public agencies.
One caveat. NOBODY is going to stroll up and hand you the contract. You have to do the legwork and you have to provide goods or services that somebody actually needs. And once you get a contract, do it well or you will get a bad record and be unable to get a reference. There are hundreds of others waiting to replace you.
And don't disregard that FAR link!
This is Federal Government in the DC area related.
Whats the typical take between an employee at a Prime Contractor and the Subcontractor? Lets say the Government is billed for $100/hour for work by the Contracting company. What percent of that will the employee get if he works for the Prime Contractor? What if he is a subcontractor. what percent of that will his subcontracting company get, what percentage will the employee get?
I want to know that plus more on the business model and costs for Sub contractors.
You can find a lot of information on Fed Biz sites. Google Fed Biz.
For wages Google Davis Bacon. HOWEVER I think it depends on the contract whether Davis Bacon wages apply. EG: if I hire a contractor to perform a repair/service and it's under credit card, I really don't care what he pays his people. (I mean I do but I don't)
Then there's Bid-Build, Design-Bid-Build, IDIQ, FSC, Performance Based Contracts....
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?? - what makes you say that...I assume this is just facetiousness - any Federal Contracting Officer who decided to ignore the FAR would find him or herself in a pile of doo-doo pretty quick...
