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SEC Vendor Communication Plan

1. Background

Communicating with potential contractors early and often during the acquisition process can 

help the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) gain better product and service information 

and improve the quality of market research efforts. The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 

(Part 10) encourages market research between the Government and the market to arrive at 

the most suitable approach to acquiring, distributing, and supporting supplies and services. Such 

communications may include industry or small business conferences, public hearings, and 

one-on-one meetings with potential offerors. SEC officials are urged to engage with vendors, 

particularly during the pre- solicitation phase and for high dollar or more complex

procurements, so long as sensitive or proprietary information is protected on behalf of the 

Government and vendors alike.

Communications with the interested businesses can be very beneficial and result in:

• Greater clarity of SEC requirements;

• Increased awareness of current industry products and services;

• Increased competition, including greater use of small businesses in 

subcontracting opportunities;

• More realistic expectations about marketplace capabilities;

• Greater use of small business set asides;

• Better business decisions made by vendors about their private sector investments 

in products or services offered to the SEC;

• More favorable pricing;

• Increased cost savings;

• Higher quality contract deliverables; Fewer performance problems; and

• Early resolution of potential performance issues.

Furthermore, FAR 1.102-2(a)(4) provides that:

“The Government must not hesitate to communicate with industry as early as possible in the 

acquisition cycle to help the Government determine the capabilities available in the 

marketplace. Government acquisition personnel are permitted and encouraged to engage in 

responsible and constructive exchanges with industry ( e.g., see 10.002 and 15.201), so long 

as those exchanges are consistent with existing laws and regulations, and do not promote an 

unfair competitive advantage to particular firms.” 
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2. Statement of Agency Commitment

The SEC is committed to communicating with industry by taking advantage of existing 

authorities and educating our workforce on additional opportunities to work with industry. To 

ensure that we clearly understand the marketplace and contract with industry to provide sound 

solutions in support of the SEC mission, the SEC will conduct market research that will 

encourage competition and allow us access to the best qualified suppliers. The SEC seeks to 

maximize its collaboration with both large and small businesses and is interested in 

considering the capabilities of businesses that have not worked with the SEC before.

In particular, the SEC, as permitted by law, seeks to utilize to the maximum extent practicable 

small, minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, 

HUBZone, and small disadvantaged businesses.

3. Identification of Senior Agency Official Responsible for Promoting Vendor 

Engagement.

The Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) is responsible for promoting vendor engagement. 

Additionally, the HCA is responsible for the direct management of the contracting activity, 

including the appointment of contracting officers and other responsibilities.

4. Roles and Responsibilities

Director, Office of Acquisitions (OA): The Director is responsible for the overall 

management and oversight of the Office of Acquisitions (OA) procurement functions within the 

SEC.

Senior Procurement Executive (SPE): The SPE is an individual appointed pursuant to 

section 16(3) of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 414(3) and is 

responsible for the management direction of the SEC acquisition system, including 

implementation of the unique acquisition policies, regulations, and standards of the SEC. The 

Chairman of the SEC has designated the Director of OA, as the SPE.

Contracting Officer (CO): The Chairman of the SEC has delegated CO responsibilities to the 

Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the SPE. The Chairman has delegated authority to the 

SPE to select all other COs within the SEC based on qualifications, to appoint them as COs, 

and to terminate their appointments. The SPE may further delegate these responsibilities to 

the HCA. Contracting Officer appointments to SEC employees outside of the Office of 

Acquisitions (OA) are limited to purchases at or below the simplified acquisition threshold and 

to specified supplies and services.

The CO has the authority to enter into, administer, and terminate contracts and make related 

determinations and findings. COs are responsible for ensuring performance of all
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necessary actions for effective contracting and safeguarding the interests of the United States 

in its contractual relationships. The CO has the overall and primary responsibility for 

conducting individual procurements in accordance with law, executive orders and all other 

applicable procedures.

Contracting Officer Representative (COR): A COR is a Federal employee, appointed by a 

CO in writing, who monitors the technical or performance aspects of a contract and performs 

other duties specified by their appointment letter. The individual who will serve as the COR 

once the contract is awarded should participate in developing the requirement and other preaward activities so that they may be familiar with all aspects of the contract.

Program Manager (PM): The designated Federal employee with responsibility for and 

authority to accomplish SEC program objectives, and/or develop, produce, and sustain 

requirements to meet the SEC’s operational needs. The PM, in coordination with the COR, 

should:

• Inform the CO, as soon as a need is identified, about the level of vendor 

engagement needed to help the PM and others conduct effective market research;

• Assess the need for introducing new entrants to the market and recommend to the 

CO ways it can be to accomplished;

• Discuss vendors engagement activities with the CO prior to meetings – the CO may 

not attend but should be aware of all communications; and

• Be as knowledgeable as possible about the requirements for acquisition planning.

Director, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI): Senior official responsible for 

the increased participation of minority and women-owned businesses in the programs and 

contracts of the agency at all levels of its business activities.

Director, Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU): The OSDBU is 

designated by the Chairman of the SEC and is responsible for implementing and executing 

programs to assist small businesses, including veteran-owned, service disabled veteran 

owned, HUBZone, small disadvantaged, and Women Owned Small Business Concerns 

(WOSBC). At the SEC, the Director of the Office of Acquisitions fulfills the responsibilities for 

the Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) and is 

responsible to and reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the SEC.

Supplier Diversity Officer (SDO): This designated Federal employee reports to the Director 

of OMWI and is primarily responsible for coordinating technical assistance to diverse firms 

and ensuring, to the maximum extent possible, that such firms are given the opportunity to 

fairly compete for and receive SEC contract awards. This is done by:
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• Conducting regularly scheduled vendor outreach days, participating in diverse 

business conferences and matchmaking sessions;

• Creating awareness and collaborating with internal participants including the CO, 

Contract Specialist (CS), and Contracting Officer Representative (COR) to identify 

minority and women-owned businesses with the capabilities to meet the agency’s 

business needs;

• Serving as an advisor on technical evaluation panels to ensure the inclusion of 

minority and women-owned businesses;

• Coordinating and collaborating with other agencies on best practices for inclusion 

of minority and women-owned businesses.

Small Business Specialist (SBS): This designated Federal employee is responsible for the 

implementation and execution of programs to assist small businesses, veteran-owned small 

businesses, and service-disabled veteran owned small businesses, HUBZone small 

businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, and Women Owned Small Business concerns 

(WOSB).

Additional responsibilities include the following:

• Promote overall efforts to improve engagement with small businesses and increase 

SEC-wide awareness of the need to communicate with industry;

• Coordinate small business vendor activities with program and acquisition teams;

• Coordinate and collaborate with interagency organizations and the business 

community regarding small business vendor engagement activities;

• Serve as the SEC’s primary contact for engaging prospective small businesses; and

• Collaborate with the CO, CS, and the requiring office to ensure the inclusion of small 

businesses in upcoming SEC requirements.

The Office of the General Counsel (OGC): The OGC provides legal advice to the acquisition 

team regarding appropriate communications and review acquisition documents for legal 

sufficiency.

Ethics Officer (EO): Provides advice, guidance, and training on the ethical standards that 

apply to SEC employees and oversees the standards of conduct programs throughout the 

SEC. Ensures ethics training is taken and clearly explains what is permissible and what is 

prohibited.
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5. Efforts Planned to Reduce Barriers and Promote Vendor Engagement

SEC recognizes that vendor engagement is critical to successfully meeting the 

challenges associated with supporting the SEC acquisition mission. To effectively 

promote vendor engagement, SEC plans must overcome internal and external barriers 

that exist in the Federal contracting marketplace. Examples of these barriers may 

include:

• Overly restrictive Statements of Work (SOW) and/or evaluation criteria;

• Vendor restrictions to accessing opportunities advertised in solicitation 

announcement systems such as the System for Award Management (SAM);

• Difficulty with maintaining lines of communications with small, veteran-owned, 

service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZone, small disadvantaged, and womenowned small businesses;

• Difficulty involving new vendors in solicitations;

• Short proposal response times; and

• Inadequate planning of SEC acquisitions.

The SEC works to reduce these barriers and promote vendor engagement at various 

levels of the organization and through partnerships with other Federal agencies, such as 

the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the General Services Administration 

(GSA). The OMWI actively participates in and sponsors a variety of diverse business 

conferences. To increase and improve vendor communications and promote engagement 

with the supplier community, the SEC’s Office of Acquisitions will:

• Take affirmative steps to promote supplier diversity;

• Utilize small, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZone, small 

disadvantaged, and women-owned small businesses to the maximum extent 

practicable;

• Treat all vendors and potential vendors fairly and impartially;

• Conduct business with integrity, fairness, and openness;

• Communicate constructively with industry, both large and small vendors;

• Take proactive measures to include and ensure that small, veteran-owned, service 

disabled veteran owned, HUBZone, small disadvantaged and women-owned small 

businesses are included in SEC market research and acquisition planning activities 

to the maximum extent practicable.
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• Avoid communications that lend themselves to unauthorized commitments; and

• Ensure that CORs and PMs notify COs before commitments with vendors are made.

6. Criteria for identifying which acquisitions must include vendor input in the preaward phase and the extent of the required engagement as a condition of approval 

by the SEC’s investment review board (or similar body).

Communicating early in the acquisition process with potential offerors enhances the SEC’s 

ability to procure quality supplies and services more efficiently and promote more 

competition. While the SEC does not define a minimum dollar threshold for including 

comprehensive vendor engagement during the acquisition process, SEC COs, CORs, and 

PMs are encouraged to engage industry for a wide range of procurement needs, 

especially:

• Procurements with new requirements;

• Procurements that received limited responses to previous solicitations;

• High risk procurements;

• Complex and large scale procurements; and

• Re-competitions.

As previously mentioned, SEC holds industry days, pre-solicitation conferences, and/or 

pre-proposal conferences as necessary and allows for reasonable engagement with 

vendors. SEC assesses vendor communication needs during acquisition planning and will 

identify and plan for the following, as applicable:

• Issuing a Request for Information (RFI);

• Issuing a Sources Sought notice;

• Issuing a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) or draft Statement of Objectives (SOO);

• Using collaboration with interested offerors,

• Allowing for a reasonable amount of one-on-one engagement with vendors; and

• Providing an appropriate amount of time for communications with vendors

during the proposal evaluation process, where necessary and appropriate.

The SEC will conduct communication with vendors in a courteous and consistent manner 

that honors procurement integrity rules while capitalizing on the value of frequent and 

useful dialogue with industry. Internally, the SEC will collaborate with the Office of the
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General Counsel (OGC) to provide guidance, as necessary, regarding the 

appropriateness of SEC engagement opportunities with vendors to provide proper, clear, 

and consistent communication.

7. Publication of Engagement Events

Vendor engagement events, such as industry days, small business and other vendor 

outreach sessions, pre-solicitation/pre-proposal conferences, etc. may be posted 

publicly and updated using the “special notices” function on SAM.gov. 

8. Training Efforts

All staff with responsibilities in the SEC acquisitions process will avail themselves of 

continuous training on industry best practices to ensure they are knowledgeable about 

Federal contracting and effectively communicating with industry. To facilitate and ensure 

appropriate communications with industry, avoid unauthorized commitments, and to 

facilitate effective Government/Business relationships, the SEC has drafted rules that 

govern meetings between SEC Contracting Officer Representatives and Program 

Managers and industry representatives.

The guidance is included as “Attachment A,” will be posted with the SEC Vendor 

Communication Plan for the benefit of all SEC COs, CORs, PMs and other SEC employees.

9. Links to Existing Policies

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• National Women’s Business Council (NWBC)

• Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)

• System for Award Management (SAM)

• Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI)

• Small Business Administration (SBA)

10. Follow-up Plans to Refine and Improve Vendor Communication:

Revisions to this VCP will be made as necessary.
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Attachment A 

GUIDANCE FOR MEETING WITH INDUSTRY REPRESENTATIVES

(What SEC Contracting Officers (COs), Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs), 

and Divisions/Offices and other SEC staff need to know before they meet with 

vendors and industry representatives)

SEC Contracting Officers (COs), Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs), Program 

Managers (PMs), and other staff are encouraged to talk with industry representatives of both 

large and small businesses so that SEC procurements reflect an understanding of the 

commercial marketplace. This exchange of information, however, must take place within a 

framework that treats all vendors (and potential vendors) fairly and impartially. Your CO is your 

best resource in preparing you for a vendor meeting. The following guidelines will help a SEC 

PM and other SEC staff members to develop a framework and set of sound business practices 

when meeting with vendors.

THE GUIDANCE: After the SEC’s needs are established and the requirements to satisfy 

those needs are developed, no exchange with industry and potential vendors shall occur 

without the permission and without the presence of the Contracting Officer. A procurement 

begins at the point when the SEC’s needs are established and the description of the 

requirements to satisfy agency need is developed. In meetings with vendors or industry 

representatives, do not disclose “procurement sensitive” or “source selection sensitive” 

information; do not disclose the proposal evaluation process or the specifics of an on-going 

procurement; and do not discuss litigation or pending litigation. No information shall be 

released after the SEC’s needs are established and the requirements to satisfy those 

needs are developed without the permission of the CO.

1. AVOID UNAUTHORIZED COMMITMENTS (i.e., an agreement that is not binding 

because the Government representative making the agreement lacks the proper authority 

to enter into that agreement on behalf of the Government). In the case of contracts, only 

a CO can commit the Government.

Good Practice: End each vendor meeting with the statement: “Nothing discussed in this 

meeting authorizes you to work, start work, or bill for work. Any understanding on your 

part to the contrary is not valid.”

2. TREAT ALL VENDORS AND POTENTIAL VENDORS FAIRLY AND 

IMPARTIALLY.

3. CONDUCT BUSINESS WITH INTEGRITY, FAIRNESS, AND OPENNESS. Not only 

must the acquisition process have integrity, but the actions of each SEC employee 

and SEC contractor personnel must reflect integrity, fairness, and openness. Avoid 

Organizational Conflicts of Interest or even the appearance of a conflict.

4. UNDERSTAND YOUR ETHICS RESPONSIBILITIES. Consult your CO or the SEC 

Ethics Officer if you have questions or concerns related to ethical conduct or
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Procurement integrity.

5. BEFORE ACCEPTING A MEETING, NOTIFY YOUR CONTRACTING OFFICER. Your 

Contracting Officer may provide you with information about the vendor, their current 

contracts with SEC, or if they are active in proposing to a specific procurement. After 

agency needs are established and requirements to satisfy those needs are developed, 

no exchange with industry and potential vendors will occur without the permission and 

without the presence of the Contracting Officer. (See “The Rule” above.)

6. CONTROL THE MEETING AND ITS AGENDA. Always prepare and follow a meeting 

agenda. Before the meeting, identify specific information that you want the vendor to 

address. You may limit the number of attendees and specify the mix of the vendor’s 

business development and technical staff to attend.

7. EMPHASIZE THAT THE PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THE MEETING IS FOR THE 

GOVERNMENT TO LEARN ABOUT THE INDUSTRY AND MARKETPLACE. Ask 

questions and get an understanding of the advantages and issues associated with a 

particular approach or business practice. Ask the vendor clarifying questions but avoid 

expressing opinions or preferences. The meeting should not be the basis for further 

action and should not unintentionally solicit a proposal.

8. ALWAYS MAKE THE INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE THE SAME TO ALL VENDORS. 

Provide a standard information package to all vendors that provide up-to-date and 

accurate information about the mission and requirements.

Good Practice: Provide vendors with information that could properly be published on the 

SEC public website. You should not provide non-public information without prior written 

approval of your CO and Office of the General Counsel (OGC).

9. ENSURE IMPARTIALITY. Do not render to, or accept, preferential treatment from any 

private party (e.g., VIP visitor treatment for vendors such as Government vehicle rides 

from the airport, officially hosted free dining.).

10. DOCUMENT THE RESULTS OF THE MEETING. Documenting the results and findings 

of the meeting is a critical part of your market research effort. Be sure to record the date, 

place, and meeting participants, including their company affiliation and contact telephone 

numbers/emails. Title this document Market Research” and record the results in a manner 

appropriate to the size and complexity of the acquisition.
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ATTACHMENT B 

OFFICE OF FEDERAL PROCUREMENT POLICY (OFPP) MYTH-BUSTING MEMORANDA

“Myth-Busting #4” – Strengthening Engagement with Industry Partners through Innovative 

Business Practices (April 30, 2019) 

“Myth-Busting #3”: Further Improving Industry Communication with Effective Debriefings

(January 5, 2017) 

“Myth-Busting #2”: Addressing Misconceptions and Further Improving Communication 

during the Acquisition Process (May 7, 2012) 

“Myth-Busting”: Addressing Misconceptions to Improve Communication with Industry 

during the Acquisition Process (February 2, 2011)