Department of Justice
Consideration should be given to con-
solidating or breaking out procure-
ments to obtain a more economical
purchase. Where appropriate, an anal-
ysis will be made of lease versus pur-
chase alternatives, and any other ap-
propriate analysis to determine the
most economical approach.
(5) To foster greater economy and ef-
ficiency, grantees and subgrantees are
encouraged to enter into State and
local intergovernmental agreements
for procurement or use of common
goods and services.
(6) Grantees and suhgrantees are en-
couraged to use Federal excess and sur-
plus property in lieu of purchasing new
equipment and property whenever such
use is feasible and reduces project
costs.
(7) Grantees and subgrantees are en-
couraged to use value engineering
clauses in contracts for construction
projects of sufficient size to offer rea-
sonable opportunities for cost reduc-
tions. Value engineering is a system-
atic and creative anaylsis of each con-
tract item or task to ensure that its es-
sential function is provided at the
overall lower cost.
(8) Grantees and subgrantees will
make awards only to responsible con-
tractors possessing the ability to per-
form successfully under the terms and
conditions of a proposed procurement.
Consideration will be given to such
matters as contractor integrity, com-
pliance with public policy, record of
past performance, and financial and
technical resources.
(9) Grantees and subgrantees will
maintain records sufficient to detail
the significant history of a procure-
ment. These records will include, but
are not necessarily Hmited to the fol-
lowing: rationale for the method of
procurement, selection of contract
type, contractor selection or rejection,
and the basis for the contract price.
(10) Grantees and subgrantees will
use time and material type contracts
only—
Gi) After a determination that no
other contract is suitable. and
(il) If the contract includes a ceiling
price that the contractor exceeds at its
own risk.
(11) Grantees and subgrantees alone
will be responsible, in accordance with
§ 66.36
good administrative practice and sound
business judgment, for the settlement
of all contractual and administrative
issues arising out of procurements.
These issues include, but are not lim-
ited to source evaluation, protests, dis-
putes, and claims. These standards do
not relieve the grantee or subgrantee
of any contractual responsibilities
under its contracts. Federal agencies
will not substitute their judgment for
that of the grantee or subgrantee un-
less the matter is primarily a Federal
concern. Violations of law will be re-
ferred to the local, State, or Federal
authority having proper jurisdiction.
(12) Grantees and subgrantees will
have protest procedures to handle and
resolve disputes relating to their pro-
curements and shall in all instances
disclose information regarding the pro-
test to the awarding agency. A
protestor must exhaust all administra-
tive remedies with the grantee and sub-
grantee before pursuing a protest with
the Federal agency. Reviews of pro-
tests by the Federal agency will be lim-
ited to:
(i) Violations of Federal law or regu-
lations and the standards of this sec-
tion (violations of State or local law
will be under the jurisdiction of State
or local authorities) and
(il) Violations of the grantee’s or sub-
grantee’s protest procedures for failure
to review a complaint or protest. Pro-
tests received by the Federal agency
other than those specified above will be
referred to the grantee or subgrantee.
(c) Competition. (1) All procurement
transactions will be conducted in a
manner providing full and open com-
petition consistent with the standards
of §66.36. Some of the situations con-
sidered to be restrictive of competition
include but are not limited to:
(i) Placing unreasonable require-
ments on firms in order for them to
qualify to do business,
(i1) Requiring unnecessary experience
and excessive bonding,
(ili) Noncompetitive pricing practices
between firms or between affiliated
companies,
(iv) Noncompetitive awards to con-
sultants that are on retainer contracts,
(v) Organizational conflicts of inter-
est,
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