15.303 Responsibilities
Source: FAR 15.303 on acquisition.gov
FAR 15.303 establishes clear roles and responsibilities for agency heads, source selection authorities, and contracting officers to ensure a fair, consistent, and best-value source selection process.
Overview
FAR 15.303 outlines the key responsibilities in the source selection process for competitive acquisitions. It assigns the overall responsibility for source selection to agency heads, but typically delegates the role of source selection authority (SSA) to the contracting officer unless another individual is appointed. The SSA is tasked with forming a qualified evaluation team, approving the source selection strategy or acquisition plan, ensuring consistency in solicitation documents, evaluating proposals strictly according to stated criteria, considering advisory recommendations, and ultimately selecting the proposal(s) that offer the best value to the government. The contracting officer acts as the main point of contact for offerors after solicitation release, manages communications with offerors post-proposal receipt, and is responsible for awarding the contract(s). This section ensures a structured, fair, and transparent source selection process.
(a) Agency heads are responsible for source selection. The contracting officer is designated as the source selection authority, unless the agency head appoints another individual for a particular acquisition or group of acquisitions.
(b) The source selection authority shall-
(1) Establish an evaluation team, tailored for the particular acquisition, that includes appropriate contracting, legal, logistics, technical, and other expertise to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of offers;
(2) Approve the source selection strategy or acquisition plan, if applicable, before solicitation release;
(3) Ensure consistency among the solicitation requirements, notices to offerors, proposal preparation instructions, evaluation factors and subfactors, solicitation provisions or contract clauses, and data requirements;
(4) Ensure that proposals are evaluated based solely on the factors and subfactors contained in the solicitation (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title10-section3303&num=0&edition=prelim" target="_blank">10 U.S.C. 3303(c) and http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title41-section3703(c)&num=0&edition=prelim" target="_blank">41 U.S.C. 3703(c));
(5) Consider the recommendations of advisory boards or panels (if any); and
(6) Select the source or sources whose proposal is the best value to the Government (https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title10-section3303&num=0&edition=prelim" target="_blank">10 U.S.C. 3303(c) and http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title41-section3703(c)&num=0&edition=prelim" target="_blank">41 U.S.C. 3703(c)).
(c) The contracting officer shall-
(1) After release of a solicitation, serve as the focal point for inquiries from actual or prospective offerors;
(2) After receipt of proposals, control exchanges with offerors in accordance with 15.306; and
(3) Award the contract(s).