Contracting Officer warrant board EXAM
LATEST UPDATED VERSION QUESTIONS AND
VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS JUST RELEASED
If a contractor is included on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and
Nonprocurement Programs, what are the rules on continuation of current contracts with
the contractor? - answer>>>Authority: FAR 9.405
1. Agencies may continue contracts or subcontracts in existence at the time the
contractor was debarred, suspended, or proposed for debarment unless the agency head
or a designee directs otherwise.
2. Ordering activities may continue to place orders against existing contracts, including
indefinite delivery contracts, in the absence of a termination.
3. Agencies shall not renew or otherwise extend the duration of current contracts (i.e.
exercise options), or consent to subcontracts, unless the agency head or a designee
authorized representative states, in writing, the compelling reasons for renewal or
extension.
When dealing with potential organizational and consultant conflicts of interest, what are
the two underlying principles? - answer>>>Authority: FAR 9.5
1) Preventing the existence of conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment;
and
2) preventing unfair competitive advantage.
FAR prescribes limitations on contracting in four general areas in order to mitigate
organizational conflicts of interest.
(a) What are these four general areas?
(b) What are the two basic problems we are trying to prevent? - answer>>>A2:
,(a) 1. Providing Systems engineering and technical direction
2. Preparing specifications of work statements
3. Providing evaluation services
4. Obtaining access to proprietary information
(b) 1. Conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment
2. Unfair competitive advantage
Describe some techniques for conducting market research? - answer>>>1. Contacting
knowledgeable individuals in Government and industry regarding market capabilities to
meet requirements.
2. Reviewing the results of recent market research undertaken to meet similar or
identical requirements.
3. Publishing formal requests for information in appropriate technical or scientific
journals or business publications.
4. Querying the Government-wide database of contracts and other procurement
instruments intended for use by multiple agencies and other Government and
commercial databases that provide information relevant to agency acquisitions.
5. Participating in interactive, on-line communication among industry, acquisition
personnel, and customers.
6. Obtaining source lists of similar items from other contracting activities or agencies,
trade associations or other sources.
7. Reviewing catalogs and other generally available product literature published by
manufacturers, distributors, and dealers or available on-line.
8. Conducting interchange meetings or holding pre-solicitation conferences to involve
potential offerors early in the acquisition process.
7 Steps to PBSA - answer>>>7 Steps to PBSA
,1) Form a team
2) identify the problem
3) examine the market
4) develop PWS
5) determine how to measure
6) select the KTR
7) Manage the Performance
You are the CO on a new competitive program that is preparing for the System
Development and Demo phase, and you are very close too issuing the RFP. The Col who
is the PM comes up to you and says that the General at the user's requirements office
has asked that a few significant last minute requirements be put into the RFP, and he
wants to know what your thoughts are. What do you tell the PM? - answer>>>Since it is
difficult for a Col to say "no" to the Gen...explain the situation in the following manner.
The PM should tell the Gen that there will most likely be a cost, schedule, and/or
performance impact from adding the new requirement. It may be as simple as a delay in
contract award, or it could be more complex than that. The Col has an obligation to tell
the Gen that he/she will obtain all the info needed for the Gen to make an informed
decision.
The PM should also ask the Gen if the new requirements can be inserted at a planned
future date, perhaps along with other new or changed requirements. The new/changed
rqrmts could be added at a later date as a planned "block" or separate increment of
capability in a planned, organized, and less disruptive manner after the current contract
is in performance.
You are working on a competitive RFP and are nearing completion of Sections L,
containing information and instructions for offerors, and Section M, containing
evaluation factors for award. You have just completed a cross-check of Sections L and M
to make sure that there is correlation between the contents of the two sections and are
satisfied that there is 100% correlation. Your PM comes into your office all excited and
, tells you that this new information requires is not related to any other information
requested from the offerors in Sec L. You also know from your work on the RFP that
there is no corresponding evaluation criterion in Sec M for this information. You ask him
why he wants to include the request in the RFP, and he states that this is important
information that he absolutely has to obtain for the success of the program.. What do
you tell the PM? - answer>>>It is critical that the information requested in Sec L be held
to an absolute minimum, and then be requested only to the extent that the information
will be relevant to the evaluation criteria in Sec M. A sure protest loser is where
information is received in a proposal, is not relevant to an evaluation criterion, and is
considered in the final source selection decision. This situation is called an "undisclosed
evaluation criterion" by the GAO. IF the information is so critical to the success of the
program, then why isn't there a corresponding evaluation criterion in Sec M that will
consider the information in making the final source selection decision?
What is included in a Source Selection Plan (SSP)? - answer>>>1) A brief description of
the requirement, including reference to any applicable guidance such as a Program
Management Directive (PMD)
2) A summary of the acquisition strategy, including when applicable, type of contract
anticipated, incentives contemplated, milestone demonstrations intended, special
contract clauses, performance metrics
3) Source Selection team. Recommended members and advisors by name, position title,
company affiliation or by functional area. Identify other Government organizations that
will participate in the source selection.
4) Pre-solicitation activities. Describe the activities leading up to the release of the
solicitation such as market research, draft solicitations, and synopsis.
5) Evaluation factors and sub factors. Describe the evaluation factors and sub factors and
their relative order of importance by attaching the relevant portions of the instructions
to offerors and evaluation criteria (Section L&M). Describe the evaluation process.
6) Schedule of events.
7) Address the use of non-government personnel.
8) Identify and explain requested or approved deviations and delegations.
LATEST UPDATED VERSION QUESTIONS AND
VERIFIED CORRECT ANSWERS JUST RELEASED
If a contractor is included on the List of Parties Excluded from Federal Procurement and
Nonprocurement Programs, what are the rules on continuation of current contracts with
the contractor? - answer>>>Authority: FAR 9.405
1. Agencies may continue contracts or subcontracts in existence at the time the
contractor was debarred, suspended, or proposed for debarment unless the agency head
or a designee directs otherwise.
2. Ordering activities may continue to place orders against existing contracts, including
indefinite delivery contracts, in the absence of a termination.
3. Agencies shall not renew or otherwise extend the duration of current contracts (i.e.
exercise options), or consent to subcontracts, unless the agency head or a designee
authorized representative states, in writing, the compelling reasons for renewal or
extension.
When dealing with potential organizational and consultant conflicts of interest, what are
the two underlying principles? - answer>>>Authority: FAR 9.5
1) Preventing the existence of conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment;
and
2) preventing unfair competitive advantage.
FAR prescribes limitations on contracting in four general areas in order to mitigate
organizational conflicts of interest.
(a) What are these four general areas?
(b) What are the two basic problems we are trying to prevent? - answer>>>A2:
,(a) 1. Providing Systems engineering and technical direction
2. Preparing specifications of work statements
3. Providing evaluation services
4. Obtaining access to proprietary information
(b) 1. Conflicting roles that might bias a contractor's judgment
2. Unfair competitive advantage
Describe some techniques for conducting market research? - answer>>>1. Contacting
knowledgeable individuals in Government and industry regarding market capabilities to
meet requirements.
2. Reviewing the results of recent market research undertaken to meet similar or
identical requirements.
3. Publishing formal requests for information in appropriate technical or scientific
journals or business publications.
4. Querying the Government-wide database of contracts and other procurement
instruments intended for use by multiple agencies and other Government and
commercial databases that provide information relevant to agency acquisitions.
5. Participating in interactive, on-line communication among industry, acquisition
personnel, and customers.
6. Obtaining source lists of similar items from other contracting activities or agencies,
trade associations or other sources.
7. Reviewing catalogs and other generally available product literature published by
manufacturers, distributors, and dealers or available on-line.
8. Conducting interchange meetings or holding pre-solicitation conferences to involve
potential offerors early in the acquisition process.
7 Steps to PBSA - answer>>>7 Steps to PBSA
,1) Form a team
2) identify the problem
3) examine the market
4) develop PWS
5) determine how to measure
6) select the KTR
7) Manage the Performance
You are the CO on a new competitive program that is preparing for the System
Development and Demo phase, and you are very close too issuing the RFP. The Col who
is the PM comes up to you and says that the General at the user's requirements office
has asked that a few significant last minute requirements be put into the RFP, and he
wants to know what your thoughts are. What do you tell the PM? - answer>>>Since it is
difficult for a Col to say "no" to the Gen...explain the situation in the following manner.
The PM should tell the Gen that there will most likely be a cost, schedule, and/or
performance impact from adding the new requirement. It may be as simple as a delay in
contract award, or it could be more complex than that. The Col has an obligation to tell
the Gen that he/she will obtain all the info needed for the Gen to make an informed
decision.
The PM should also ask the Gen if the new requirements can be inserted at a planned
future date, perhaps along with other new or changed requirements. The new/changed
rqrmts could be added at a later date as a planned "block" or separate increment of
capability in a planned, organized, and less disruptive manner after the current contract
is in performance.
You are working on a competitive RFP and are nearing completion of Sections L,
containing information and instructions for offerors, and Section M, containing
evaluation factors for award. You have just completed a cross-check of Sections L and M
to make sure that there is correlation between the contents of the two sections and are
satisfied that there is 100% correlation. Your PM comes into your office all excited and
, tells you that this new information requires is not related to any other information
requested from the offerors in Sec L. You also know from your work on the RFP that
there is no corresponding evaluation criterion in Sec M for this information. You ask him
why he wants to include the request in the RFP, and he states that this is important
information that he absolutely has to obtain for the success of the program.. What do
you tell the PM? - answer>>>It is critical that the information requested in Sec L be held
to an absolute minimum, and then be requested only to the extent that the information
will be relevant to the evaluation criteria in Sec M. A sure protest loser is where
information is received in a proposal, is not relevant to an evaluation criterion, and is
considered in the final source selection decision. This situation is called an "undisclosed
evaluation criterion" by the GAO. IF the information is so critical to the success of the
program, then why isn't there a corresponding evaluation criterion in Sec M that will
consider the information in making the final source selection decision?
What is included in a Source Selection Plan (SSP)? - answer>>>1) A brief description of
the requirement, including reference to any applicable guidance such as a Program
Management Directive (PMD)
2) A summary of the acquisition strategy, including when applicable, type of contract
anticipated, incentives contemplated, milestone demonstrations intended, special
contract clauses, performance metrics
3) Source Selection team. Recommended members and advisors by name, position title,
company affiliation or by functional area. Identify other Government organizations that
will participate in the source selection.
4) Pre-solicitation activities. Describe the activities leading up to the release of the
solicitation such as market research, draft solicitations, and synopsis.
5) Evaluation factors and sub factors. Describe the evaluation factors and sub factors and
their relative order of importance by attaching the relevant portions of the instructions
to offerors and evaluation criteria (Section L&M). Describe the evaluation process.
6) Schedule of events.
7) Address the use of non-government personnel.
8) Identify and explain requested or approved deviations and delegations.
