FAR Overhaul Q&A and Debunking Part 19 Myths

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I’m back with another Q&A for GovCon Intelligence this time. We’re going to talk more about the FAR Overhaul and look closely at Part 19 to see what’s changed.

I’m going to debunk some myths that I’ve heard about the FAR Overhaul. There’s a lot of misinformation out there, fake news, and I’m going to try to get to the heart of what’s really happening with the FAR Overhaul.

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Okay, we’ll get into the questions. Thanks to everybody who’s been reading me and sending questions by replying to the emails or comments, or by finding me on LinkedIn. I’ll continue these Q&A sessions and go through all your questions.

Subcontract plan administration appears in Part 42

The first question I got was about a statement I made in the last Q&A. It said that the FAR eliminated a section on administrative contracting officers, 19.706. And I said maybe it would have come back in Part 42, but administrative contracting officers didn’t come back in Part 42.

Well, what I said was incomplete. Somebody pointed out to me that there may not be the term “administrative contracting officers” in Part 42, but there is something called the administrative contracting or contracting administrative office. And it’s in Part 42.302, the CAO, Contract Administration Office. And it covers some of the subcontracting responsibilities that were in 19.706 about the administrative contracting officers. Specifically, it’s a very long section, by the way. Specifically, parts 52, 53, 54, and 55 of that CAO, Contract Administration Office, section 42.302.

All four of those sections deal with subcontracting. They include reviewing and evaluating and approving subcontracting plans; obtaining contractors’ approved subcontracting for its commercial products; if there’s not an approved plan, assisting the contracting officer in evaluating proposed subcontracting plans; and, importantly to this point, by periodic surveillance, ensuring that the contractors’ compliance with small, disadvantaged, women-owned, veteran-owned, etc., subcontracting plans maintain documentation of the contractor’s performance and compliance with these plans requirements and provide advice and assistance to the firms involved.

So that’s a lot of the material that was in the former 19.706 that was eliminated in the FAR Overhaul. It was already there in this 42.302. I think the FAR misled a bit in saying that they eliminated 706 because it was not necessary to sound procurement. Really, it’s duplicative. I think they should have said it was duplicative. 19.706 just went over some of the material that was in 42.302, just in different words, saying administrative contracting officer instead of contracting administration office. But it really covers the same ground.

So I think in the end, not much has changed. You still have many, if not all, of the responsibilities that were in 19.706. Now it’s just in 42.302. It was already there, but it remains in 42.302. And it’s just in a different title. It’s in the CAO instead of the ACO.

So my apologies if I was confused on that point. The word search does not work in all instances when you’re switching terms like that.

Sole-source contracts to entity-owned firms

Someone sent in a question about what the FAR Overhaul means for entity-owned firms. That’s ANCs, the Alaska Native Corporation, Indian tribes, and NHOs, which are Native Hawaiian Organizations. And the question is about the removal of a provision in the 8(a) part of the FAR that said that agencies could award sole-source contracts to 8(a) participants owned by Alaska Native firms and Indian tribes above the competitive threshold.

That was in 19.805-1(b)(2) and that’s been removed. So the quest