FCC Proposal Volume & Evaluation Criteria 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection, once a proposal is deemed technically acceptable, what determines the award?
- Technical ratings are re-evaluated at a higher standard
- The lowest evaluated price among acceptable offerors wins (Correct answer)
- Past performance becomes the primary differentiator
- The contracting officer has discretion to select any acceptable offeror
Correct answer: The lowest evaluated price among acceptable offerors wins
FAR 15.101-2 specifies that under LPTA, award goes to the lowest-priced offeror whose proposal meets the minimum technical requirements.
Question 2: Which FAR section defines the rules for evaluation factors and significant subfactors in negotiated acquisitions?
- FAR 13.106
- FAR 14.201
- FAR 15.304 (Correct answer)
- FAR 16.505
Correct answer: FAR 15.304
FAR 15.304 establishes requirements for establishing, weighting, and communicating evaluation factors in negotiated (Part 15) acquisitions.
Question 3: A proposal exceeds the government's page limit by 10 pages. What action may the contracting officer take?
- Accept the full proposal because page limits are advisory only
- Evaluate only the first pages up to the limit and disregard the excess (Correct answer)
- Automatically disqualify the proposal as non-responsive
- Request a revised proposal from all offerors
Correct answer: Evaluate only the first pages up to the limit and disregard the excess
Most solicitations specify that pages beyond the limit will not be read or evaluated, so extra pages provide no benefit and may indicate the offeror did not follow instructions.
Question 4: What is the key difference between a 'factor' and a 'subfactor' in a proposal evaluation plan?
- Factors are evaluated by the SSA while subfactors are evaluated by the SSAC
- Subfactors are components within a broader evaluation factor (Correct answer)
- Factors apply only to the price volume while subfactors apply to technical volumes
- There is no functional difference; the terms are interchangeable
Correct answer: Subfactors are components within a broader evaluation factor
Evaluation factors are the primary assessment categories, while subfactors break those categories into more granular components evaluated within each factor.
Question 5: In the context of proposal evaluation, what does 'relevancy' mean when assessing past performance?
- Whether the past contract was performed for a federal agency
- How closely the prior work matches the scope, complexity, and dollar value of the current requirement (Correct answer)
- Whether the past performance occurred within the last 10 years
- Whether the reference provided a positive assessment
Correct answer: How closely the prior work matches the scope, complexity, and dollar value of the current requirement
Relevancy is determined by comparing the nature, size, and complexity of prior work to the current requirement, not simply by who the customer was.
Question 6: Which document serves as the government's internal roadmap for evaluating proposals and is NOT released to offerors?
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Source Selection Evaluation Guide (SSEG) (Correct answer)
- Performance Work Statement (PWS)
- Section M of the solicitation
Correct answer: Source Selection Evaluation Guide (SSEG)
The Source Selection Evaluation Guide is a protected government document that details scoring methodologies and evaluation procedures, kept confidential to preserve integrity.
Question 7: What is the purpose of the 'Strengths, Weaknesses, Significant Weaknesses, and Deficiencies' (SWSD) framework in proposal evaluation?
- To rank offerors numerically on a 100-point scale
- To provide a structured, documented basis for assigning adjectival ratings (Correct answer)
- To automatically disqualify proposals with any weakness
- To compare proposals only on price after technical evaluation
Correct answer: To provide a structured, documented basis for assigning adjectival ratings
The SWSD framework provides evaluators with a consistent, defensible structure for documenting findings that support the adjectival rating assigned to each factor.
FCC Proposal Volume & Evaluation Criteria 3
Under Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection, once a proposal is deemed technically acceptable, what determines the award?