Regional Contracting Office

Salient Characteristics are those physical, functional, and performance characteristics an item must meet/have to be acceptable for award.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Physical:  color, type of material, dimensions/size, and unit of issue, etc.
Functional:  principles of operation, intended use, capability, etc.
Performance:  capacity, minimum output, speed, etc.

In accordance with Federal Regulations, “requirements shall not be written so as to require a particular brand name, product, or a feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer, thereby precluding consideration of a product manufactured by another company.”

See FAR 11.105. https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-11#FAR_11_105

RAs and RCO must fulfill requirements of 10 U.S.C.2305(a)(1), 10 U.S.C.2377, 41 U.S.C.3306(a), and 41 U.S.C.3307.
To comply with said statutes RAs must state requirements with respect to an acquisition of supplies or services in terms of-
(A) Functions to be performed;
(B) Performance required; or
(C) Essential physical characteristics;

*The development and inclusion of salient characteristics satisfies these statutory requirements.  

There are three major federal laws that make up antitrust laws: The Sherman Antitrust Act, The Clayton Act, and The Federal Trade Commission Act. Thus, chances of a monopoly for a commercial item are virtually zero.

For example:
- Dell is not the only Computer manufacturer in the market (HP and Microsoft are competitors). 
- CLEAR is not the only Investigation Software in the market (Tracers and LexisNexis are competitors)
- John Deere is not the only UTV manufacturer in the market (Kawasaki, Polaris, and Honda are competitors)

If the RA provides adequate evidence (emails, screenshots, efforts taken, etc.) and market research that indicates other companies’ similar products lack particular features, do not meet or cannot be modified to meet the agency’s needs, then RAs can submit a “Sole Source or Brand Name Justification.”  

The RCO will review the justification, execute additional market research, and request legal counsel to determine if the justification is contractually and legally sufficient. 

RAs can identify two or three brands (with model name or part number) that can fulfill the agencies need and provide this information to the RCO.

Example: 
“Dell Precision 7920 tower with this Dell list of specification, HP Z2 G9 Tower with this HP list of specification, or Lenovo Thinkstation P620 Tower with this Lenovo list of specifications are acceptable.”  

According to MARADMIN 375/11 and MARADMIN 453/21

I.T. is any equipment, supply, consumable, or peripheral that is used for automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interface, transmission, or reception of data or information. The term includes computing devices, infrastructure hardware, software, firmware, and website subscriptions, and related resources.

I.T. is any service for development, installation, maintenance, modification, training, education, consulting, technical support, cloud services, reengineering, or architecture of data or information systems. 

An “I.T. Waiver” comes in two forms:
a.    <$50K Threshold Approval Letter
b.    Information Technology Procurement Request  (ITPR)

I.T. purchases at SERVMART physical or virtual stores do not require an I.T Waiver. See par. 2 of MARADMIN 523/15.

Thus, an “I.T. Waiver” is required for all I.T. equipment, supply, consumable, peripheral, or service purchases outside of SERVMART.  If contracting support via RCO is requested then an “I.T. Waiver is required. 

Get in contact with your S-6 / G-6 to obtain either an approved <$50K Threshold Approval Letter or an ITPR.
 

Per Information Resources Management (IRM) 5236-06A,  the <$50K Threshold Approval Letter “I.T. Waiver” only applies for requirements under $50K when using O&M funding for the purchase of:
-    I.T. Peripherals  
-    Software under DoD ESI
-    Fleet and Industrial Supply Center (FISC) wireless support services
-    Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) printers, copiers, scanners, fax machines, and multifunction
devices (MFDs)
-    Additive manufacturing devices not connected to the MCEN, i.e. 3D printers

Thus, if the item(s) requested are under $50K but do not fall into the categories listed above, then the <$50K Threshold Approval Letter I.T. Waiver is not applicable and the only authorized “I.T. Waiver” will be an ITPR submitted via Remedy.

Submitting a PR within DAI does not mean the RCO will automatically receive the PR.

RAs must always follow up and ensure the PR indeed interfaced with the RCO contracting system (called CWS, SPS, or PD2).

RAs can run multiple PRDS OBIEE Reports to ensure the PR interfaced with the contracting system or to identify the error impeding the interface. 

Best practice is to identify the errors, cancel the PR, and then create a new PR without errors.  

The following OBIEE reports related to PRDS are available in Global P2P Folder:

1.  PRDS Status for a Requisition – Displays PR eligibility, file generation status, and GEX validation results

2.  PRDS GEX Failed PRs – Displays a list of all PRs which failed GEX validation

3.  PRDS GEX File Errors – Displays the GEX validation failures for a single file

4.  PRDS GEX Ineligible PRs – Displays a list of Requisitions which were ineligible for PRDS

5.  PRDS GEX Passed PRs – Displays a list of Requisitions which passed GEX validation

Any of the following inputs within the PR will cause an interface error:

• Unit Price of $0.00
• Quantity of 0
• PR Total Dollar Value of $0.00
• Invalid attachment type
• Adding a line level attachment
• Not selecting a DODAAC in the Ship To Address field

Only the below attachment formats are currently supported by DAI:
•   Text File (TXT)
•   Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF)             
•   Word Document (DOC)             
•   Word Document (DOCX)             

Thus, if any other format is attached, the PR will not interface with CWS, SPS, PD2.  

To add a commercial supplier in DAI, RAs must have the “P2P Supplier Maintenance role” (request it if you don’t have it).
Then, follow the below two day process:
-    Day 1:  Follow the steps at P2P_120_001_Add a UEI to DAI to Create a New Commercial Supplier. After completion, vendor’s “SAM Data Transfer” process runs nightly to create the new vendor record.
-    Day 2: Follow the steps at  P2P_120_002_Assign Supplier Site to your Agency for Existing DAI Commercial Supplier. The vendor will be available immediately following this action.

Now you can go ahead and manually obligate in DAI.

DAI now requires the DAI AO to ensure "DAI acceptance of supplies/services" exist
within DAI. This is accomplished via  "P2P Receipts USMC"

Within DAI, there is a "Procure to Pay (P2P) Receipts responsibility" or
"P2P Receipts USMC", used to manually create Receipts (Accruals), search for
existing Receipts, and process returns against Receipts. To resolve issues:

- Identify who is the individual with DAI "P2P Receipts USMC" permissions/role (request permissions if needed).
- Ensure there exist a DAI Acceptance/Receipt record in DAI after supplies/services have been delivered.
- Ensure the "P2P Receipts USMC" acceptor executes the acceptance/receipt 
(see  P2P_121_001).