You form your team based on who offers the greatest chance of success. Therefore, one day you may be partners, while the next day you are ghosting your now-competitor s likely themes, countering their messages and highlighting your strengths. While such behavior long has been a fact of life in the contracting business, it s always taken place on the contractor side, not the government side. However, new contracting vehicles and practices may be changing that situation. These task and delivery order contracts allow the government to purchase an indefinite quantity of supplies or services from more than one contractor, generally within certain time and dollar limits.
Contractors compete to provide the goods or services in response to agency orders.
Congress encouraged the use of these vehicles in the 1994 Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act, largely in the hope that they would help foster competition. Through them, agencies have on hand a stable of contractors, offering different technical approaches at competitive prices. Some of the largest MAC contracts are available to agencies across the government. This contract has no set dollar limit, just a constraint on numbers of tasks. Hundreds of contractors and subcontractors offer information technology services through these vehicles.