Question by dsfadf: What is the difference amongst a Source Selection Authority and Milestone Selection Authority?
Relating to US Government Contracting, FAR, and AFARs provisions. Please cite sources if you know.
I’m seeking for the distinction amongst the SSA and MDA. Thanks.
Who chooses the SSA?
Greatest answer:
Answer by wazwondring
The complete procedure by which the Government examines and evaluates the information major up to the award choice in the competitive negotiated acquisition of a solution or service is named source selection. A source selection procedure is regarded “formal” when a specific evaluation group structure is established to evaluate proposals and pick the source for major weapon method contract awards. The procedures may be utilised for non-main awards as prescribed in agency regulations.
a. The excellent technical complexity of weapon systems, the long leadtime necessary for their development, and their higher price have given extraordinary significance to the sound decision of a effective offeror. This selection has often become for the top management of the Army a key choice that impacts not only the capability of our forces to achieve their missions, but also a considerable segment of the economy where the contract operate is to be performed.
b. A diverse array of technical, management, and specialist expertise are required to formulate and express the Government’s requirement for a key weapon system in a solicitation and to evaluate the proposals of the competing offerors. These abilities are necessary simply because: (1) the hardware to be created and made is typically an assembly of numerous components that are products of different technologies or engineering disciplines (2) the technical uncertainties that are characteristic of the work to create, create, and field a new weapon system or gear require varying degrees of surveillance and handle over a contractor’s function (3) a lot of of the weapon systems becoming acquired right now call for the participation of other military solutions and Government agencies whose counsel will be required to attain the choice selection.
c. Simply because of the far-reaching consequences of the choice decision, the authority to make it must be retained at a level deemed completely accountable and knowledgeable of all the aspects needed to make an enlightened decision. It is essential that the criteria for selection be established at a management level which has the essential expertise and visibility.
d. This complex requirement has offered rise to formalized, despite the fact that not inflexible, methods for evaluating proposals. For main systems, the source selection decision will normally be created by a higher level DoD official known as the Supply Selection Authority (SSA). To prepare the SSA for the selection choice, the standard evaluation tasks are historically achieved by technical professionals assembled in a body referred to as the Supply Selection Evaluation Board (SSEB). To the SSEB’s evaluation is added the judgment of the senior military and civilian personnel who represent the a variety of functional locations involved in the acquisition. This body of specialists is referred to as the Supply Choice Advisory Council (SSAC). The SSAC’s report to the SSA, if requested, typically forms the basis for the award choice.
Major choice points, referred to as “milestone choices,” are the points in an acquisition system where major alterations are to be produced. The move from a investigation and development phase to full scale production of an aircraft would be a milestone selection.
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