Page 18 - gfs0418_Magazine

COMMANDER’S UPDATETE
COMMANDER’S UPDA

A culinary specialist assigned to
3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery
Regiment, 25th Division Artillery, Inspired by his father, a WWII Quarter-
25th Infantry Division, places master Veteran, Young, left, applied to
breakfast steaks on a grill inside West Point, selected Quartermaster as
a field kitchen at Fort Polk, La. his specialty and served in many logistics
(Photo by Staff Sgt. Armando R. random inspections will help keep Young: For CONUS positions, culminating in his current tour
Limon, USA, 3rd Brigade Combat manufacturers on track. USDA will acquisitions, we continue as director of subsistence, DLA Troop
Team, 25th Infantry Division.) Support. (Photo by DLA Troop Support)
also inspect records of products they to work solicitations that
don’t observe being inspected and can prevent nonconform- were issued in late 2016 and 2017 using best-value tradeoff
ing products from being shipped. This change represents procedures. Tradeoff procedures differ from Low Pricing
a move away from the National Contracts concept, which Technically Acceptable (LPTA) procedures in that trad-
allows all businesses, including small businesses, to have eoff procedures allow the government to accept proposals
a greater opportunity to sell their products to the PVs, as other than the lowest priced proposal or other than the
long as they meet the quality requirements specified in highest technically rated offer. Under LPTA procedures,
the item description. the best value to the government is considered to be the
Additional requirements for the automated submission proposal that is technically acceptable and provides the
of MPA pricing by manufacturers are in the design phase lowest evaluated price. Using tradeoff procedures results
and are intended to simplify the evaluation process and in a longer evaluation process, since it permits tradeoffs
improve the timeliness and accuracy of our output. among the non-price and price factors to determine the
Our focus is on making improvements to the MPA competitive range for negotiations and, ultimately, the
program first before making changes to the NAPA program. contract award.
Going forward, as we relentlessly pursue customer sat-
Government Food Service: The plan involves transitioning isfaction, our expectation is that CONUS will use both
both programs to a Global Pricing Agreement (GPA). How methods to solicit proposals. The determination to use
are these plans progressing? How would the GPA work? LPTA or best value procedures is based on individual fac-
Would GPA replace both programs? Would MPA and NAPA tors to be considered, region by region.
be merged? We’ve made numerous enhancements to the follow-on
Subsistence OCONUS prime vendor solicitations. These
Young: In an effort to strengthen warfighter readiness enhancements are intended to ensure the warfighters’ re-
and lethality in a cost-conscious manner, we are currently quirements are met in uncertain contingency environments.
making improvements to the MPA program. Once the
improvements are made, we will review feedback from Government Food Service: Also, instead of structuring
industry on the planned changes to the NAPA program. contracts with a base period and options, solicitations will
Based on the comments received to date, changes for the utilize tiered-pricing periods. Explain how this works and is
NAPA program may vary from those planned for the MPA this just OCONUS or CONUS, as well?
program. Once completed, we anticipate the changes to
the NAPA and MPA program will lead to the new GPA Young: It is anticipated that both types of approaches
program. The resultant program is intended to focus on will be used in upcoming CONUS solicitations. The recently
having the manufacturer put its “best price” forward for awarded Utah region contract included a four-year tiered
the benefit of the warfighter and our other customers. performance approach, with two performance periods of
two years each. The determination to use tiered perfor-
Government Food Service: Any changes in strategy or mance periods, or base and option periods, will be based
terms? In responses last year, prime vendor contracts would on individual factors to be considered region by region.
be awarded in 2017 on the basis of best value tradeoff.
Explain what that is and how it is working?

18 GOVERNMENT FOOD SERVICE • APRIL 2018