(b) (2) It is Army policy to establish the absolute minimum number of factors necessary for evaluation of proposals. Source selection factors may be subdivided into subfactors that, in rare instances, may be further subdivided into elements if needed. Evaluation factors and, if used, subfactors and elements are the basis for assessing each offeror's ability to meet the Army's needs. They are the uniform baseline against which each offeror's proposal is compared to determine the proposal(s) which represent the best value to the Government. Factors and Subfactors must be limited to those which (a) are expected to surface real and measurable discriminators between offerors, and (b) have value enough to warrant the payment of a meaningful cost/price premium to obtain the measured discrimination. Evaluation factors, subfactors, and elements:
(A) Must be written in sufficient depth to communicate the measures of merit used to determine how the proposal will be evaluated and rating determined;
(B) Include only those specific program characteristics that are significant enough to have an impact on the source selection decision, such as those identified through program risk analysis;
(C) Set forth in Section M of the draft and final RFPs, Evaluation Factors for Award. In addition, the relative importance of all factors, subfactors, and elements shall be specified in Section M of the RFP; and
(D) Must be qualitative. Numerical weighting (i.e., assigning points or percentages to evaluation factors and subfactors) is not an authorized method of expressing the relative importance of these factors and subfactors. Evaluation factors and subfactors must be definable in readily understood qualitative terms (i.e., adjectival, colors, or other indicators, but not numbers) and represent the key areas of importance to be considered in the source selection process. The direction of this subparagraph is not waivable, either on an individual or class basis, as an AFARS deviation.
(d) (i) When the Government intends to evaluate the cost of future production or performance beyond the instant contract, and to include these costs as part of the basis of selection and award, clearly specify the evaluation procedures for such costs in the solicitation. Do not use Government estimates of future or life cycle costs in an evaluation unless the Government’s procedures and methodologies for developing the costs are specified in the solicitation.
(ii) To the extent that measurable manpower and personnel integration (MANPRINT) discriminators, of value to the Government, are identified, evaluate MANPRINT in source selections for major systems, designated acquisition programs and, when appropriate, other acquisition programs. Evaluate MANPRINT issues or opportunities that are specific, stand-alone functional requirements as identified in the capabilities documents.
[AFARS Revision #21, dated May 22, 2007]
