FAR 10.001 provides that Agencies must conduct market research appropriate to the circumstances before soliciting offers for acquisitions with an estimated value in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold and should conduct this research before soliciting offers for acquisitions with an estimated value less than the simplified acquisition threshold when adequate information is not available and the circumstances justify its cost. FAR 12.101 requires Agencies to conduct market research to determine whether commercial items or nondevelopmental items are available that could meet the agency's requirements, irrespective of dollar value. Therefore, the requirement to conduct market research for the purpose of determining whether or not an item or service meets the definition of commercial item at FAR 2.101, i.e. the commerciality determination, applies to all requirements greater than the micro-purchase threshold. We have changed the title of the format to Market Research Checklist to better reflect the regulatory basis and intent of the document. It seems to us that acquisition reinvention has not changed the basic tenet that decisions made by contracting professionals should be both cogent and defensible.
Contemporaneous documentation is given much greater evidentiary weight than post hoc explanation.
The format that we have adopted is a simple way to document this issue. However, we recognize that purchasing agents are necessarily constrained by the press of multiple requirements within limited procurement administrative lead times. We encourage its use for all requirements which exceed the micro-purchase threshold. The year end would be disastrous. I don't want to do deobligation modifications for ICC transactions.