OAR 137-047-0250: Source Selection

(1) Except as permitted by ORS 279B.065 through 279B.085 and 279A.200 through 279A.225, a Contracting Agency shall Award a Contract for Goods or Services, or both based on Offers received in response to either competitive sealed Bids pursuant to 279B.055 or competitive sealed Proposals pursuant to 279B.060. (2) Written Cost Analysis for Contracts for Services. Before conducting the Procurement of a Contract for Services that is subject to ORS 279B.030, 279B.033, and ORS 279B.036, a Contracting Agency must, in the absence of a determination under section 34 of that enactment that performing the services with the Contracting Agency's own personnel and resources is not feasible, conduct a Written cost analysis. (3) Feasibility Determination for Contracts for Services. A Contracting Agency may proceed with the procurement of a Contract for Services without conducting a cost analysis under ORS 279B.033 if the Contracting Agency makes Written findings that one or more of the special circumstances described inORS 279B.036, make the Contracting Agency's use of its own personnel and resources to provide the Services not feasible. (4) Special Circumstances. The special circumstances identified in ORS 279B.036 that require a Contracting Agency to procure the Services by Contract include any circumstances, conditions or occurrences that would make the Services, if performed by the Contracting Agency's employees, incapable of being managed, utilized or dealt with successfully in terms of the quality, timeliness of completion, success in obtaining desired results, or other reasonable needs of the Contracting Agency. (5) Written Cost Analysis under ORS 279B.036. (a) Basic Comparison. The Written cost analysis must compare an estimate of the Contracting Agency's cost of performing the Services with an estimate of the cost a potential Contractor would incur in performing the Services. However, The Contracting Agency may proceed with the Procurement for Services only if it determines that the Contracting Agency would incur more cost in performing the Services with the Contracting Agency's own personnel than it would incur in procuring the Services from a Contractor. In making this determination, the cost the Contracting Agency would incur in procuring the Services from a Contractor includes the fair market value of any interest in equipment, materials or other assets the Contracting Agency will provide to the Contractor for the performance of the Services. (b) Costs of Using Contracting Agency's Own Personnel and Resources. When estimating the Contracting Agency's cost of performing the Services, the Contracting Agency shall consider cost factors that include: (A) The salary or wage and benefit costs for the employees of the Contracting Agency who would be directly involved in performing the Services, to the extent those costs reflect the proportion of the activity of those employees in the direct provision of the Services. These costs include those salary or wage and benefit costs of the employees who inspect, supervise or monitor the performance of the Services, to the extent those costs reflect the proportion of the activity of those employees in the direct inspection, supervision, or monitoring of the performance of the subject Services. (B) The material costs necessary to the performance of the Services, including the costs for space, energy, transportation, storage, equipment and supplies used or consumed in the provision of the Services. (C) The costs incurred in planning for, training for, starting up, implementing, transporting and delivering the Services. (D) Any costs related to stopping and dismantling a project or operation because the Contracting Agency intends to procure a limited quantity of Services or to procure the Services within a defined or limited period of time. (E) The miscellaneous costs related to performing the Services. These costs exclude the Contracting Agency's indirect overhead costs for existing salaries or wages and benefits for administrators, and exclude costs for rent, equipment, utilities and materials, except to the extent the cost items identified in this sentence are attributed solely to performing the Services and would not be incurred unless the Contracting Agency performed the Services. (F) ORS 279B.033 provides that an estimate of the Contracting Agency's costs of performing the Services includes the costs described in subsections (5)(b)(A) through (E) of this rule. Therefore, those costs do not constitute an exclusive list of cost information. A Contracting Agency may consider other reliable information that bears on the cost to the Contracting Agency of performing the Services. For example, if the Contracting Agency has accounted for its actual costs of performing the Services under consideration, or reasonably comparable Services, in a relatively recent Services project, the Contracting Agency may consider those actual costs in making its estimate. (c) Costs a Potential Contractor Would Incur. When estimating the costs a potential Contractor would incur in performing the Services, the Contracting Agency shall consider cost factors that include: (A) The average or actual salary or wage and benefit costs for Contractors and Contractor employees: (i) Who work in the business or industry most closely involved in performing the Services; and (ii) Who would be necessary and directly involved in performing the Services or who would inspect, supervise or monitor the performance of the Services. (B) The material costs necessary to the performance of the Services, including the costs for space, energy, transportation, storage, raw and finished materials, equipment and supplies used or consumed in the provision of the Services. (C) The miscellaneous costs related to performing the Services. These miscellaneous costs include reasonably foreseeable fluctuations in the costs listed in subsections (5)(c)(A) and (B) of this rule over the expected duration of the Procurement. (D) ORS 279B.033 provides that an estimate of the costs a potential Contractor would incur in performing the Services includes the costs described in subsections (5)(c)(A) through (C) of this rule. Therefore, those costs do not constitute an exclusive list of cost information. A Contracting Agency may consider other reliable information that bears on the costs a potential Contractor would incur. For example, if the Contracting Agency, in the reasonably near past, received Bids or Proposals for the performance of the Services under consideration, or reasonably comparable Services, the Contracting Agency may consider the pricing offered in those Bids or Proposals in making its estimate. Similarly, the Contracting Agency may consider what it actually paid out under a Contract for the same or similar Services. For the purposes of these examples, the reasonably near past is limited to Contracts, Bids or Proposals entered into or received within the five years preceding the date of the cost estimate. The Contracting Agency must take into account, when considering the pricing offered in previous Bids, Proposals or Contracts, adjustments to the pricing in light of measures of market price adjustments like the consumer price indexes that apply to the Services. (6) Decision Based on Cost Comparison. After comparing the difference between the costs estimated for the Contracting Agency to perform the Services under section (5)(b) and the estimated costs a potential Contractor would incur in performing the Services under section (5)(c), the Contracting Agency may proceed with the Procurement only if the Contracting Agency would incur more cost in performing the Services with the agency's own personnel and resources than it would incur in procuring the Services from a Contractor. (7) Exception Based on Salaries or Wages and Benefits. If the sole reason that the costs estimated for the Contracting Agency to perform the Services under section (5)(b) exceed the estimated costs a potential Contractor would incur in performing the Services under section (5)(c) is because the average or actual salary or wage and benefit costs for Contractors and their employees estimated under subsection (5)(c)(A) are lower than the salary or wage and benefit costs for employees of the Contracting Agency under subsection (5)(b)(A), then the Contracting Agency may not proceed with the Procurement. (8) Exception Based on Lack of Contracting Agency Personnel and Resources; Reporting. In cases in which the Contracting Agency determines that it would incur less cost in providing the Services with its own personnel and resources, the Contracting Agency nevertheless may proceed with the Procurement if, at the time the Contracting Agency intends to conduct the Procurement, the Contracting Agency determines that it lacks personnel and resources to perform the Services within the time the Contracting Agency requires them. When a Contracting Agency conducts a Procurement under this section, the Contracting Agency must: (a) Make and keep a Written determination that it lacks personnel and resources to perform the Services within the time the Contracting Agency requires them and of the basis for the Contracting Agency's decision to proceed with the Procurement. (b) If the Contracting Agency is a Local Contracting Agency, provide to its Local Contract Review Board, each calendar quarter, copies of each Written cost analysis and Written determination. (c) If the Contracting Agency is a State Contracting Agency, provide to the Emergency Board, each calendar quarter, copies of each Written cost analysis and Written determination. (d) If the Contracting Agency is a State Contracting Agency, prepare a request to the Governor for an appropriation and authority necessary for the State Contracting Agency to hire personnel and obtain resources necessary to perform the Services that are the subjects of the Written cost analyses and Written determinations within the time needed by the State Contracting Agency. The request to the Governor must include copies of the records submitted to the Emergency Board under subsection (8)(c) of this rule.