Essay on Creating a Compliance Matrix and Preparing a Far-Compliant Proposal in Response to the RFP

A compliance matrix is a cross-reference table thats used by proposal evaluators to locate responses to specific requirements in a Request for Proposal (RFP). Drafting and using compliance, matrix is therefore one of the best practices is when writing an RFP. Before creating the RFP, its crucial to know its importance. A compliance matrix mainly shows three types of information. The first information it shows are the requirements that must be addressed by various sections of a RFP. Secondly, it enables contract officers to validate that all the RFP requirements have been met and finally, it makes it easier to comprehend the content of RFP and how to navigate well crafted responses to it.

The compliance matrix for XYZ Company is shown in Appendix 1 below. FAR compliance is mandatory for most RFPs. By submitting a company proposal, XYZ Company should be able to proactively should be able to approach its prospective clients and present its service offering. The proposal must be impressive and should portray and excellent picture of the company. As noted by Osborne (2011), the goal of any proposal should be to effectively address the specific requirements for a specified contract. Winning government contract requires companies to submit FAR compliant proposals. The preparation of a good RFP increases chances of receiving proposals. Therefore XYZ should eb able to structure the proposal using best practices that are FAR compliant. The clients stated questions must be answered explicitly on the FAR compliant RFP documents.

In some circumstances, the client may specify the format and structure of RFP to be used. However, irrespective whether the format or structure is given, XYZ Company must ensure that it provides additional information that may persuade the client towards favoring its proposal. Such information should be included in the Appendix section. The proposal should be easy to read and understand (Feldman et al, 2011). Before embarking on the RFP drafting process, XYZ Company should engage the client to the maximum by asking for their scoring guideline as well as evaluation criteria. Additionally, the company should ensure that it meets the submission deadline and timeline (Osborne, 2011). The idea is for XYZ Company to focus and dedicate more time on the most important aspects of the proposal as requested or as indicate in the clients scoring guide. A concept design or preliminary requirement specification may be necessary to ensure that the proposal gets a favorable rating. The main objective of a requirement specification is to clearly describe the limits for functionality, content as well as technical implementation of any project that the firms will undertake in the future (Osborne, 2011). XYZ Company must therefore ensure that the RFP format meets the federal government requirements as issued by the RFP.

Applying the appropriate FAR clauses so as to meet compliance in both contract formulation and award

Because all government contracts are regulated by the federal Acquisition regulation, the manner in which contractors perform their business with the government should strictly adhere to the FAR- guidelines. This implies that the agency RFP requirements should be met in order to come up with a winning strategy. Contract Officers at XYZ must therefore adhere to the FAR-guidelines at all times. Before XYZ Company submits any proposal to the government for contract solicitation, the company should first participate in a bid/no bid exercise (Eden-Ellis et al., 2016).

By engaging in this exercise, the contract officer and his or her team can succeed in formulating a winning strategy while also discovering whether or not to bid in a given contract. The very first step is to give clear directions to the initiative in order for the company to optimize the time needed in meeting the deadlines. This can be achieved by drafting an elaborate Work Breakdown Structure. A Work Breakdown Structure provides a list of teaks with schedules and allows for the calculation of the critical path of a given project. By developing a Work Breakdown Structure, XYZ Company can determine the size of the anticipated proposal, its volume as well as the level of urgency of the projects solicitation requirement. The same document also contains important information on the adequacy of the solicitation requirement as well as the urgency of the designated proposal.

XYZ Company must consider the terms of the contract and completion methods irrespective of the type of contract issued. The final sub clause implemented in the final document depends on the requirements of the CO that oversees the execution of a given contract. XYZ Company must also agree to the set of conditions of provided responses according to the criteria thats stated in the proposal notice prior to its ultimate execution. The spirit of full disclosure must also be upheld between XYZ Company and the contracting agency. In order for the company to improve its chances of winning tenders and getting its RFPs selected, it must have a clear line of communication with all relevant contracting government agencies. FRA subsection 15.2 and more specifically part 15.201 requires Agencies to promote early exchange of information regarding future acquisitions. They do this via various platforms including industry and small business conferences, market research, public hearings and on-on-one meetings with all potential organizations such as XYZ Company. Its therefore prudent for XYZ t Company to participate in these information exchange activities in order to gain s much information as possible about future possibilities. This can be achieved by opening communication channels with these agencies. FAR clause 5.205(c), requires for Agencies to provide special notices of matetr5s procurement and XYZ Company should focus on obtaining these notices as soon as they are published. The contract should be formulated using the uniform contract format as specified in FAR clause 15.204-1 (FAR, 2015). XYZ Companys contract officer must fill all the necessary forms such as Standard Form 33, Standard Form 30 and Optional Form 17 as outlined in FAR 15.210 Forms section.

Identifying and accounting for FAR compliance issues as well as contributing factors from my GAO knowledge

There are several FAR compliance issues that may arise when XYZ Company is drafting its RFPs. One of the most common FAR compliance issues is conflict of interest. FAR has a special personal and organizational interest clause that aims at increasing ethics and accountability during government contracting. According to FAR 2.101, the main contributing factors of organizational conflict of interest (COI) are the circumstances and relationships that may render a contractor to be potentially unable to render impartial assistance or advice to the government. Such circumstances and relationships may impair a contractors objectivity while performing work or may give such a contractor an unfair competitive advantage (Eyre & Payster, 2012). The other issue is organizational privacy and confidentiality. The contributing factors are the need to share sensitive government or military information with private contractors.

Applying the knowledge of planned actions while soliciting and awarding contracts as well as making recommendations to ensure the government agency is in compliance with the FAR requirements

While government contracting may be a lucrative endeavor for businesses like XYZ Company, organizations must consider certain FAR guidelines and implement them in order to prevent them from getting certain contracts or getting prosecuted for breaking the law. Audit team at XYZ Company should ensure compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 15.4 on Contract Pricing as well as best practices. All companies doing business with government agencies must also comply with special laws and regulations aimed at ensuring that taxpayers money is properly utilized. For instance, XYZ Company must implement proper internal controls and compliance programs aimed at detecting and preventing improper conduct related q with the performance of all government agency contracts. Crimes such as Fraud bribery, conflict of interest and gratuity as outlined in Title 18 of the U.S. Code must be avoided (OConnor, 2007). Ethics must also be upheld by all companies wishing to bet government contracts. Companies must also have dispute resolution mechanisms to enable the conflicting parties to reach a compromise for the sake of the larger project.

The main contributing factors of organizational conflict of interest (COI) are the circumstances and relationships that may render a contractor to be potentially unable to render impartial assistance or advice to the government. Such circumstances and relationships may impair a contractors objectivity while performing work or may give such a contractor an unfair competitive advantage (Eyre & Payster, 2012). The other issue is organizational privacy and confidentiality. The contributing factors are the need to share sensitive government or military information with private contractors. The company must also implement proper internal controls aimed at eliminating conflict of interest. Such a procedure is however best implemented suing the services of a reputable and independent external auditor who are not in any way affiliated with neither XYZ Company nor the government. All the FAR compliance issues should however be considered and taken into great consideration while deciding to take part in government contracting or not. Ultimately, XYZ Company must ensure that it provides additional information that may persuade the client towards favoring its proposal while also avoiding government prosecution should their negligence lead to breach of the FSR compliance regulations. . Such information should be included in the Appendix section. The proposal should be easy to read and understand (Sochay & Junus, 2016).

References

Eden-Ellis, M. A., Cobb, N., & Divine, C. (2016). Writing business bids and proposals for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.Eyre., PJ. Payster,JG (2012). Conflicts of Interest in Government Contracting: Reducing Risk in

an Age of Increased Visibility. Crowell & Moring LLP. Available online at

https://www.crowell.com/files/120209-conflicts-of-interest-in-government-contracting.pdf.OConnor, T. (2007). Understanding government contracts law. (1st ed.). Vienna, VA:

Management Concepts.Osborne, S. (2011). Winning government business: Gaining the competitive advantage (2nd ed.).

Sochay, L., & Junus, R. (2016). From Summon to SearchPlus: The RFP Process for a Discovery Tool at the MSU Libraries. Library Technology Funding, Planning, and Deployment, 72.Appendix 1