The methods of solicitation and selection allowed within the Federal contractual sphere1 are listed in § 9 of FTA Circular 4420.1E
You may choose:
- micro purchases only for contract amounts less than $3,000;
- small purchase procedures only for contract amounts less than the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $100,000);
- sealed bids where:
- you have a complete, adequate, and realistic specification or purchase description
- two or more responsible bidders are willing and able to compete
- the procurement lends itself to a firm fixed price contract and the selection can be made primarily on the basis of price
- no discussion with bidders is needed after receipt of offers;
- competitive proposals; or
- noncompetitive proposals (sole source) procurement only if you can justify not soliciting additional competition in the manner explicitly defined in FTA Circular 4420.1E §9f.
- best value for contracts which indicate that the best value or the proposal which offers the greatest business value based upon an analysis of a tradeoff of qualitative technical factors and price/cost to derive which proposals represents the “best value” to the Gunnison Valley RTA’s procurement.
