(a) DLA contracting offices will work together with their respective small business offices as catalysts and facilitators, identifying entities willing to participate as mentors. Prospective prime contractors are responsible for selecting small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned small businesses (or “ABILITYONE” entities) for participation with them in the Program. However, when requested, the DLA contracting office and/or small business office will assist prospective prime contractors in the process of locating small entities as potential proteges. The prime must establish for itself the parameters of its involvement under the Program; its proposal for participation, identifying the assistance already undertaken or to be rendered, shall be incorporated into its contract with the Government. The prospective contractor is obligated, as part of its contractual undertaking, to enter into a written, binding mentoring business agreement with a protege based on this plan. (Thus, the MBA, by its being expressly contemplated by the mentor's proposal and by the latter document's incorporation into the prime contract with DLA, binds the mentor firm to both the protege and the Government.)
(b) Even though the Government does not enjoy privity of contract with the protege (and therefore cannot be a party to, or require a copy of, the MBA), the contracting officer shall inform the prospective offeror/mentor that the future agreement must reflect the plan included with the latter's offer.
(1) Notwithstanding that the agreement is not made a deliverable under the contract, or that a copy cannot otherwise be demanded by the contracting officer, he or she shall nevertheless request that the agreement be made available to the Government. The contractor shall be advised that any agreement so provided will be compared with the proposal contained in the contract with DLA, to ensure that it adequately reflects the mentor's obligations expressed within that contract.
(c) DLA contracting offices shall lead by example in this mentoring concept by placing greater emphasis on assisting small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned small businesses through their Business Counseling Center services and other functions/specialists throughout the activity. These contracting offices will actively promote and participate in industry-sponsored conferences and organizational seminars/meetings, using the events as a forum to discuss and forward Program goals.
(d) To promote Program participation, the DLA MBA Program shall (as stated in 19.9003) be included as an evaluation factor in best-value acquisitions that meet applicability standards. Prospective offerors shall be asked to include, as part of their overall proposal, a plan to participate in the Program as a mentor; each plan must delineate the assistance already undertaken or to be rendered to a protege. The factor is an element in the overall award decision, and the proposal provided by a successful offeror shall be incorporated into the resulting contract and monitored during performance by the contracting officer and other pertinent parties.
(1) Participation in the MBA Program is entirely elective; however, proposals that demonstrate a strong commitment to affording small, small disadvantaged, and women-owned small businesses a real opportunity to compete in the reengineered business environment will ordinarily receive a more favorable rating for this evaluation factor than those that demonstrate a lesser or no such commitment. (Examples of this type of "real opportunity" include the mentor's developing the protege into a stronger competitor by designating the latter a "valued supplier," or by permitting it to perform part of the contract work in conjunction with the prime through a type of teaming arrangement.) There is no limit to the type of assistance the prime contractor may provide to achieve its Program objectives. Of course, the "helping hand" that any firm can extend necessarily depends upon unique variables, including its business sector, range of market penetration, capitalization, competition, location, etc. The Government shall determine the adequacy of the contractor's proposal, but shall not dictate the kind of assistance to be provided.
(e) For applicable contract actions, the contracting officer shall provide incentives for prime contractors to establish and administer MBA arrangements. These include:
(1) evaluation of current or proposed participation in the MBA Program as an independent factor (separate from any overall past performance evaluation factor) in source selection;
(2) use of MBA performance under previous contracts as part of the overall past performance evaluation factor in source selection;
(3) evaluation of present MBA performance in determining placement of orders under multiple-award contracts; and/or
(4) consideration of contractor present and past MBA performance in the exercise of options for the follow-on years of long-term contracts.
(f) The DLA MBA Program shall be monitored, and performance under it analyzed, by the contracting officer and the cognizant small business specialist(s) to ensure the intended purposes of the Program are being achieved. Because activity must be evaluated specifically in terms of the contractor's commitment to the advancement and viability of a protege, and because oversight reviews must be conducted in accordance with the plan contained in the prime's contract with the Government, rather than in accordance with the agreement (see 19.9006(a) through (c)), care must be taken not to assess intentions, without regard to outcomes. The value of both effort expended and results achieved must be considered in each individual mentoring situation.
