[FAH-11A]{.underline}

[P&P 04.8D]{.underline}

SUBJECT: PRE-AWARD STAFF REVIEW PROCEDURES

1\. [Purpose]{.underline}: To revise preaward staff review procedures in
paragraph 6.G(2)(a), Assurance of Compliance Review for Financial
Assistance.

2\. [Effective Date]{.underline}: Upon issuance.

3\. [Applicability]{.underline}: This procedure applies to all CH
contracting activities. Where available, local staff representatives
should be used by off-site offices.

4\. [Supersedes]{.underline}: Policy & Procedure (P&P) 04.8D and
FAH-11A, dated March 28, 2000.

5\. [Policy]{.underline}: ACQ staff and other CH contracting activities
when responsible for the preparation of acquisition and assistance
documents are responsible for coordinating required pre-award reviews.

6\. [Procedure]{.underline}: Pre-award staff reviews shall be obtained
for the following actions:

> A. [Actions required to be reviewed by Legal Services Group
> (LGL)-Office of General Law (GL)]{.underline}:

1)  All acquisition and financial assistance actions including,
    solicitations, awards, amendments, modifications, Justifications for
    Restricted Eligibility (JREs) and Determinations for Noncompetitive
    Financial Assistance (DNFAs) except for:

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(a) Interagency agreements and financial assistance documents for which
    approved CH formats are used without deviation;

(b) Financial assistance actions awarded in response to a financial
    assistance solicitation which incorporate, without deviation, terms
    and conditions identical to the model agreement contained in the
    solicitation previously reviewed and approved by LGL-GL;

(c) Unilateral funding actions which are accomplished on approved CH
    formats without deviation;

(d) No-fund extensions of 12 months or less which are accomplished prior
    to the term end date on approved CH formats without deviation;

(e) No-fund extensions exceeding 12 months which are accomplished prior
    to the term end date on approved CH formats without deviation where,
    after coordination with LGL-GL, it is determined that updated terms
    and conditions [are not]{.underline} required; and

(f) JREs and DNFAs for awards of \$1,000,000 or less.

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2)  Requests for LGL-GL pre-award review shall be transmitted on Local
    Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56. At a minimum, documentation of
    proposed actions for LGL-GL pre-award review shall include:

> \(a\) A copy of the certified procurement request (PR).
>
> \(b\) PR attachments, including, as applicable:
>
> i\. Statement of Work.
>
> ii\. Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open
> Competition (J&A), DNFA or JRE, as applicable.
>
> iii\. Reporting Requirements.
>
> \(c\) Financial Assistance Negotiation Memorandum, Form AA-16, or
> Prenegotiation Plan, Form AA-18-2, and Post Negotiation Summary, Form
> AA-18-3, as applicable, with attachments.
>
> \(d\) One copy of the proposed solicitation or award document,
> together with all appendices and attachments.
>
> B. [Actions required to be reviewed by LGL-Office of Intellectual
> Property Law (IPL):]{.underline}
>
> \(1\) All acquisition and financial assistance actions, including
> solicitations, except for the following:

(a) Research, development or demonstration grants to domestic
    educational institutions or nonprofit organizations for which
    approved LGL-IPL formats are used without deviation.

(b) Conference grants to domestic organizations not involving research,
    development or demonstration work for which approved LGL-IPL formats
    are used without deviation.

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(2) Notwithstanding the above exemptions, if a proposal contains
    technical data exclusions, the contract specialist shall request a
    LGL-IPL review of the action.

(3) Requests for LGL-IPL pre-award review shall be transmitted on DOE-CH
    Form 415b.

> C. [Actions required to be reviewed by Technical and Administrative
> Services Group (TAS) - Safety & Technical Services (STS)]{.underline}

(1) [SAFETY]{.underline}

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(a) All acquisition, financial assistance, and subcontract actions,
    including solicitations, when work is to be performed at a
    government-owned or leased facility. *Consultation with STS should
    take place as early as possible in the procurement cycle (i.e. upon
    receipt of procurement request and statement of work).*

(b) All acquisition actions when a proposed contractor has provided an
    affirmative response to any one of the questions in Section A.
    [SAFETY]{.underline} of the Contract Pre-Award Information Sheet,
    Form AA-12.

> \(c\) Requests for TAS-STS Safety pre-award review shall be
> transmitted on DOE-CH Form 415c.
>
> \(2\) [NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ACT (NEPA)]{.underline}

(a) All financial assistance and acquisition solicitations or awards
    when a NEPA compliance review was not conducted by the project
    office or when programmatic authority has been formally delegated to
    DOE-CH.

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(b) Requests for TAS-STS NEPA review shall be transmitted on Local
    Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56, and include the Environmental
    Evaluation Notification Form, DOE CH Form 560, as completed by the
    recipient/contractor.

> \(3\) [REAL PROPERTY]{.underline}

(a) All financial assistance and acquisition actions when the
    action: (1) involves the acquisition (fee, easement, lease or
    license) of real property to be directly charged to DOE; or (2)
    disposal of government-owned real property; or (3) involves an
    improvement to real property on nongovernment-owned land.

(b) Requests for TAS-STS real property review shall be transmitted on
    Local Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56.

> \(4\) [UTILITY ACQUISITION]{.underline}

(a) All financial assistance and acquisition actions when the action
    involves the acquisition of gas, electric or water utilities.

(b) Requests for TAS-STS utility review shall be transmitted on Local
    Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56.

### (5) HUMAN SUBJECTS RESEARCH

(a) All financial assistance and acquisition actions when an offeror has
    provided an affirmative response to any one of the questions in
    Section B., [Human Research]{.underline}, of Financial Assistance
    Pre-Award Information Sheet, Form AA-47, or Section D., [Human
    Research]{.underline}, of Contract Pre-Award Information Sheet, Form
    AA-12. In addition, TAS-STS review is required prior to the issuance
    of any solicitation or acceptance of any unsolicited proposal which
    has the potential for human subjects participation. All human
    subjects research must comply with 10 CFR Part 745.

> Potential recipients of research, development and demonstration grants
> with domestic educational institutions and domestic non-profit
> organizations are required to submit a Human Subjects Research
> Certification, Form AA-136, if the required information has not
> otherwise been obtained via DOE F 4650.2, or other acceptable format.
>
> \(b\) Requests for TAS-STS Human Subjects pre-award review shall be
> transmitted on DOE-CH Form 415c.
>
> D. [Actions required to be reviewed by TAS-Safeguards and Security
> Services (SSS):]{.underline}

(1) All financial assistance and acquisitions actions involving: (1) the
    need for access to or the generation of classified information; (2)
    special source or special nuclear materials; or (3) Government-owned
    property, exclusive of land and structures, valued in excess of \$1
    million.

(2) Requests for TAS-SSS review shall be transmitted on the Contract
    Security and Classification Specification, Form DOE F 5634.2.

E. [Actions required to be reviewed by TAS-Information & Administrative
Services (IAS)]{.underline}:

(1) All contracts and contract modifications, including extensions and
    options, where the Scope of Work requires the performance of
    Information Management (IM) activities or involves Information
    Technology (IT). IM activities include activities such as the
    planning, budgeting, manipulating, and controlling of information
    throughout the information life cycle. IT means any equipment, or
    interconnected system(s) or subsystem(s) of equipment, that is used
    in the automatic acquisition, storage, manipulation, management,
    movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or
    reception of data or information. Information technology also
    includes computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and
    similar procedures, services (including support services), and
    related resources.

(2) Requests for TAS-IAS pre-award review shall be transmitted on Local
    Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56.

F. [Actions required to be reviewed by TAS-Human Resources Services
(HRS)]{.underline}:

(1) All service contracts, as defined in FAR Part 22.1001, over \$2,500.

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(3) Requests for TAS-HRS pre-award review shall be transmitted on Local
    Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56, with Standard Forms 98 and 98a,
    "Notice of Intention to Make a Service Contract and Response to
    Notice" and "Attachment A". These forms should be prepared and
    submitted to HRS in sufficient time to meet the time schedule
    requirements specified in FAR Part 22.1008-7. When completing
    Item 12. of Standard Form 98a, the contract specialist should refer
    to the Service Contract Act Directory of Occupations (the Directory)
    when identifying job classifications. The Directory may be accessed
    via the Internet at
    <http://www.dol.gov/dol/esa/public/regs/compliance/whd/wage/main.htm>.
    Pursuant to FAR Part 22.10, TAS-HRS will request a Service Contract
    Act Wage Determination from the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and
    Hours Administrator.

G. [Actions required to be reviewed by ACQ -- Support Division
(ACQ-SD)]{.underline}:

\(1\) [EEO Preaward Clearance for Acquisition]{.underline}

(a) All contracts and first-tier subcontract actions with an estimated
    value of \$10 million or more require an EEO preaward clearance from
    the OFCCP regional office prior to award or modification.

(b) Pursuant to the procedures set forth at FAR 22.805(a)(4), the
    contract specialist shall review OFCCP's National Preaward Registry
    via the Internet at <http://www.dol-esa.gov/preaward/> to (i)
    determine if the specific proposed contractor is listed and whether
    the proposed award date is within 24 months of the proposed
    contractor's Notice of Compliance completion date in the Registry.
    If so, the contract specialist shall document the OFCCP Registry
    review and clearance by printing a copy of the proposed contractor's
    Registry listing and placing the documentation in the contract file.

(c) If the conditions described in FAR Part 22.805(a)(4) cannot be
    satisfied, the contract specialist shall request an EEO preaward
    clearance from OFCCP through ACQ-SD. Such request shall be
    transmitted on DOE-CH Form 415d, with the proposed contractor's
    Representations and Certifications. However, if the contractor's
    current Representations and Certifications are already on file in
    the CH-ACQ Central Repository, it is acceptable to substitute the
    expiration date of those Representations and Certifications in the
    "Comments" section of the DOE-CH Form 415d. If the contractor's
    current Representations and Certifications are not on file or have
    expired, and it is desired to have ACQ-SD proceed with obtaining
    clearance prior to receipt of Representations and Certifications
    from the contractor, a note to this effect should be made in the
    \"Comments\" section of DOE-CH Form 415d. ACQ-SD will proceed with
    obtaining the clearance. However, the clearance will not be released
    until ACQ-SD receives the completed Representations and
    Certifications.

\(2\) Assurance of Compliance EEO Pre-Award Review for Financial
Assistance

(a) All recipients of financial assistance awards will have an Assurance
    of Compliance EEO pre-award review completed. ACQ-SD will obtain an
    external Assurance of Compliance EEO pre-award review when the total
    estimated cost of a single budget period, or the aggregate total of
    all budget periods within the project period, exceeds \$200,000.
    Assurance of Compliance EEO pre-award reviews will be valid for a
    two-year period.

(b) Requests for Assurance of Compliance EEO pre-award reviews shall be
    transmitted to ACQ-SD on DOE-CH Form 415d with copies of the
    Assurance of Compliance, Nondiscrimination in Federally Assisted
    Programs, DOE F 1600.5, and Procurement Request Authorization (PR)
    form attached. For action less than \$200,000, the PR is not
    required. . In cases where the processing of a request is required
    prior to receipt of the recipient's completed Assurance of
    Compliance form, a note to this effect should be made in the
    \"Comments\" section of the DOE-CH Form 415d. ACQ-SD will proceed
    with obtaining the clearance. However, the EEO pre-award clearance
    will not be released until ACQ-SD receives the completed Assurance
    of Compliance form.

\(3\) [Reporting Requirements Review]{.underline}

ACQ-SD review of reporting requirements is required for the following
actions:

\(a\) Any new contract award which requires the submission of plans or
reports as indicated on the Reporting Requirements Checklist, Form DOE F
1332.1 or elsewhere in the contract.

\(b\) Any contract modification to an existing award which contains a
change in reporting requirements.

\(c\) Any financial assistance award which does not utilize the standard
reporting requirements for Office of Science (SC) 10 CFR Part 605
financial assistance awards.

\(d\) Requests for ACQ-SD review of reporting requirements shall be
transmitted on DOE-CH Form 415a. A copy of the PR and Reporting
Requirements Checklist, Form DOE F 1332.1, Federal Assistance Reporting
Checklist, Form DOE F 4600.2, or other reporting requirements should
accompany Pre-Award Review Form, DOE-CH Form 415a.

> \(4\) [Independent Review Board and Alternate Review
> Actions]{.underline}

(a) Requests for Independent Review shall be transmitted in accordance
    with CH Directive CH O 971.1. Contract specialists shall comply with
    the requirements for HQ and ACQ-SD Independent Review and ACQ-SD
    Alternate Review set forth in CH Directive CH O 971.1. Contracting
    Officers are required to review and sign all pre- and
    post-negotiation memoranda before submission to ACQ-SD for Alternate
    Review and Independent Review Board action.

(b) Requests for Alternate Review shall be transmitted on Local
    Staffing/Review Form, Form AA-56.

H. Contracting Officers should exercise their independent judgment in
determining the need for any additional pre-award reviews for actions
not specifically covered herein.

I. LGL-GL shall always be the last office to review the action; however,
when Alternate Review is required, review of the action by ACQ-SD shall
immediately follow LGL-GL's review.

J.  In cases where staff review comments have been obtained and the
    guidance provided is not fully complied with, the contract
    specialist shall document the file providing the rationale for such
    action.

F. T. Sienko, Director

Support Division

Acquisition and Assistance Group