how do i run a good competitive bidding process?

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How Do I Run a Good Competitive Bidding Process?

Back to the New Basics

Schools and Libraries Division

Washington, DC • Orlando • Boston • New Orleans • Cleveland • San Francisco • Phoenix

September/October 2007

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Overview

Why are we talking about this again? Rules of the Road What we see

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Are there problems?

Yes! Highly public instances of waste, fraud and

abuse reported in the media, US DOJ More instances of competitive bidding

violations, which may not be intentional, but still result in funding reductions/denials.

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% FRNs Denied Due to Competitive BiddingFunding Year 2006

Competitive bidding denials32%

All other denials68%

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Competitive Bidding Violations BreakdownFunding Year 2006

Contract violation42%

28 day w aiting period violation

21%

Insuff icient documentation14%

Bidding violations15%

Cost effectiveness review5%

Insuff icient support resources

3%

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Bidding Violations

Price was not primary factor in selecting service provider Service Provider involved with preparing 470 Service Provider involved with competitive bidding

process Applicant’s consultant associated with Service Provider Contract signed before RFP due date Failure to provide competitive bidding support

documentation (e.g. bids, vendor bid score sheet, RFP) Consulting services provided before Letter of Agency Failure to advise bidders that RFP was available

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Know Your Role

Applicants– Write tech plan, file Form 470 and write RFP,

evaluate bids, select provider, document the process, file Form 471, select invoice method

Service Providers– Respond to 470/RFPs, assist with preparing Item 21,

provide answers on specific goods and services requested, but NOT on competitive bidding

Consultants– Make sure that you have a Letter of Agency

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Technology Plan

Creation date– Month and year that the plan is “written”

Sufficient detail to support and validate the services requested

Five elements– Goals/strategy for using technology– Professional development strategy– Needs assessment– Sufficient budget– Evaluation process

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Selective Review

Further review of – Budget– Necessary Resources– Competitive Bidding and Contracts– Technology Plan

Sample Selective Review Information Request (SRIR) available on SLD website

Retain your documentation!

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Budget

Purpose is for you to show us you can fund your share

Operating budget (or draft) has dates that cover the funding year (July – June)

Budget documentation should clearly identify applicant’s share (e.g., expense line item)

Can provide letter for reasonable expectation

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Budget

More about “reasonable expectation”

– You don’t have the money in your hands now but expect to have it after July 1

– We understand that your budget cycle may not coincide with our review cycle

– Will have to “show the money” during Form 486 review for the entire BEN for the year

– If a shortfall, we will work with you to cancel FRNs

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Payment Plans

Applicants are required to pay their share at the same time that USAC pays the discount amount.– Service Provider certifies that the invoices they

submit are for services that “have been billed to service provider’s customers.”

– Therefore, deferred payment plans that allow the applicant to pay after USAC has paid will jeopardize a funding request.

– FCC Rules include a presumption that the non-discount share will be paid within 90 days.

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Necessary Resources

Do you have the other necessary resources?– Are there end user computers?

• Must have reasonable plans to fully utilize all internal connections for which you are requesting discounts (e.g., 2-year plan to get computers for all network drops)

– Do you have software to run on the computers?– Staff trained on how to use the technology?– Electrical capacity?– Can you maintain your eligible and ineligible

equipment?

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Form 470/RFP

Form 470 indicates types of products and services ordered on the Form 471

Form 470/RFP is based on tech plan Form 470 and RFP must be available for

28 days Define and document your evaluation

process Indicates who will be receiving the

services

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Form 470/RFP

Be able to explain what you were asking for (avoid generic descriptions or statements that are overly broad)

Post for what you want (multi-year contract, type of service, voluntary contract extensions)

Indicate on your Form 470 if you are issuing an RFP

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Form 470/RFP

Applicants must be prepared to explain if and how they disqualified bids.

Applicants must inform all bidders of any requirements that could lead to disqualification.

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Competitive Bidding

Fair and open competitive bidding process Avoid conflicts of interest

– Independent consultant Service Provider– Applicant Service Provider

Open competition and bid evaluation Follow the rules – FCC and state/local Read the contract fine print Document the process!

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Competitive Bidding Selecting the winning bidder

– Price must be the primary factor, considering only ELIGIBLE goods and services.

– Solution must be cost-effective (not just the most cost-effective)

• Ysleta Order, para. 54: Routers priced at twice the market price would not be cost effective

May not use E-rate to subsidize the procurement of ineligible or unrequested products or services because that constitutes a rebate of the non-discount portion of the costs, which is a violation of FCC rules.

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Vendor Selection

Keep documentation of your selection process

Create your selection matrix and follow it If using a multi-round selection process,

price of the eligible goods and services must be the primary factor in every round.

USAC template available!

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Keep dates in order

Remember the correct order for dates:– Allowable Contract Date (28 days after 470)

THEN

– Contract Award DateTHEN

– Form 471 filingTHEN

– Form 471 Certification dateALL BEFORE

– Window close

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State Master Contracts

Applicant files Form 470

– Can use State Master Contract as a bid response

– Contract Award date is date the applicant selected the State Master Contract as its winning bid

State files Form 470

– Applicants may cite that Form 470

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State Master Contracts

Single winner

–Applicants do not need to justify the selection of the winning bidder

Multiple winners

–Applicants must be able to document why they selected the specific provider off the master contract

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State Master Contracts

Multiple Award Schedules–Applicants must be able to document

why they selected the specific provider off the multiple award schedule.

Only Terms and Conditions, not prices–These contracts do not meet FCC

contract requirements.

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Pattern Analysis

USAC reviews a group of applications, usually looking at competitive bidding information.

Are there any elements that are the same across applications?

Applicants are given an opportunity to explain the similarities.

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A tale of three districts

District A District B District C

Identical RFP format, font, table of contents

Identical RFP format, font, table of contents

Identical RFP format, table of contents but font changed

Identical description of services sought and quantities

Identical description of services sought and quantities

Identical description of services sought and quantities

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A tale of three districts

District A District B District C

Description of how they selected the vendor identical

Description of how they selected the vendor identical

Description of how they selected the vendor identical

Same typos and grammatical errors

Same typos and grammatical errors

Same typos and grammatical errors

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A tale of three districtsDistrict A District B District C

Forgot to change school name to own

My service provider listened to my needs and then wrote the RFP and the SR responses

Cancel my application

I don’t know why others are similar. We often share with other districts.

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Documentation

Retain documents to show your compliance:– Letters of Agency and any agreements

with all consultants– Technology Plan and CTPA Plan Approval

letter– RFP, including evidence of publication date

and any solicitation you did– Any and all bids (winning and losing)– Email to yourself if you get no or one bid

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Documentation

Retain documents to show your compliance: – Documents describing bid evaluation criteria

and weighting

– Any correspondence with potential bidders

– Documents related to the selection of the service provider(s)

– Signed and dated copies of contracts

– Also, see further list on USAC website

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Lack of Documentation

Leads to difficulties answering PIA Delays your FCDL Reduces/denies funding Leads to further questions from Site

Visitors and Auditors Could result in you having to return cash

to USAC

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Questions?