"Best value" is a process used to select the most advantageous offer by evaluating and comparing factors in addition to cost or price. It allows flexibility in selection through tradeoffs which the agency makes between the cost and non-cost evaluation factors with the intent of awarding to the contractor that will give the government the greatest or best value for its money.
Note that "the rules" for the best-value and tradeoff process (and the degree of documentation required) depend on two factors: the rules for the specific acquisition process being used and the rules the agency sets in the solicitation. For example, when conducting a negotiated procurement, the complex processes of FAR Subpart 15.1, "Source Selection Processes and Techniques," and FAR Subpart 15.3, "Source Selection," apply. When using Federal Supply Schedule contracts, the simpler provisions at FAR 8.404 apply. However, if the agency writes FAR 15-type rules into a Request for Quote under Federal Supply Schedule contracts, the rules in the RFQ control.
The integrated project team should consider including factors such as the following in the evaluation model:
- Quality and benefits of the solution
- Quality of the performance metrics and measurement approach
- Risks associated with the solution
- Management approach and controls
- Management team (limited number of key personnel)
- Past performance (how well the contractor has performed)
- Past experience (what the contractor has done)
The General Accounting Office acknowledges broad agency discretion in selection; therefore, the integrated solution team evaluators and the source selection authority should expect to exercise good judgment. Quite simply, best-value source selection involves subjective analysis. It cannot, and should not, be reduced to a mechanical, mathematical exercise. The following, derived from GAO protest decision B-284270, reflects just how broad agency discretion is.
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Source selection officials have broad discretion to determine the manner and extent to which they will make use of the technical and price evaluation results in negotiated procurements.
- In deciding between competing proposals, price/technical tradeoffs may be made; the propriety of such tradeoffs turns not on the difference in technical scores or ratings per se, but on whether the source selection official's judgment concerning the significance of that difference was reasonable and adequately justified in light of the RFP evaluation scheme.
- The discretion to determine whether the technical advantages associated with a higher-priced proposal are worth the price premium exists notwithstanding the fact that price is equal to or more important than other factors in the evaluation scheme.
- In a best-value procurement, an agency's selection of a higher-priced, higher-rated offer should be supported by a determination that the technical superiority of the higher-priced offer warrants the additional cost involved.
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