There’s no doubt that federal agencies think that grant recipients and subrecipients should favor competitive bidding when they purchase goods and services with award funds. Reduced to its essentials, the federal interest in grant procurement is for the purchaser to obtain the best offer that they can — and then to get what they pay for. So the federal “philosophy” for procurements under grants is that a robust marketplace is likely to produce the best deals.

Largely missing in federal regulations governing grantee procurement, though, is guidance about how to cast the widest net that will encourage contractors to make offers. Some of the guidance is pretty explicit, like the long list of “situations considered to be restrictive of competition” or the short list of circumstances when sole source purchasing is permitted. Clearly, the days are over when publishing a notice in “a newspaper having general circulation” was considered sufficient.

This webinar will explore methods that your organization can use to obtain and document competition and to justify departures if that becomes necessary. You’ll learn about:

• Planning acquisitions to maximize competition
• Conducting market research about available sources
• Organizing outreach mechanisms and events
• Soliciting contractor qualifications
• Creating lists of potential bidders and prequalified sources
• Publicizing procurement actions
• Structuring purchases with teaming and subcontracting opportunities
• Encouraging involvement by small, minority and women-owned businesses
• Avoiding restrictive requirements and unreasonable selection criteria
• Documenting how contractor selections were made
• Justifying sole source procurements

Join Bob Lloyd, principal of Federal Fund Management Advisor,™ and a recognized authority on policies and practices affecting the award, administration and oversight of federal grants, contracts and subawards for this highly practical informative session on how to broaden the marketplace for your federally funded procurements.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

• Grant and contract managers
• Sponsored projects administrators
• Program managers
• Purchasing agents
• Finance directors
• Grant project directors
• Selection panel members
• Legal counsels

Hand-out Materials:

Attendees will receive presentation slides as well as access to background materials.

Allowable Charges

The costs of webinars sponsored by Federal Fund Management Advisor™ are allowable charges to your federal grants and subgrants. The cost principles issued by OMB under its uniform guidance (and applicable to all types of awardees) state, “The cost of training and education for employee development is allowable” (2 CFR 200.472).

Attend this Live Webinar and Earn up to 1.5 CPE Credits