Faced with this situation, the contracting officer must show that all other proposals had no reasonable chance for award. Normally there is only one competitive range established before best and final offers are called for. You can, however, have successive competitive ranges by having several rounds of negotiations each followed by revised proposals. When there is more than one round of negotiations, you may narrow the competitive range after each round. The competitive range determination must be in writing and shall be a separate, stand-alone document.
All procurements involve a final decision of which, if any, proposal to select for award.
This decision is made after any and all discussions are completed. If discussions are held, the contracting officer must also make a competitive range determination. Because the competitive range determination essentially involves a prediction of the award decision, the award decision will be addressed first. The final award decision involves two conceptual steps. First, the contracting officer must determine which proposals are acceptable and thus eligible for award.