F. Procurement Questions

3. Can a Lead Applicant procure contractors to assist with grant performance, or should procurement be managed by subrecipients who receive subawards from the Lead Applicant?

Both Lead Applicants and subrecipients may procure contractors in compliance with competitive procurement requirements as described in Section III.B of the NOFO.

2. What if we have a Master Service Agreement that was previously competed in compliance with federal procurement policies? Can we list it in the application?

It depends. Your Master Service Agreement may not be so “stale” that it does not reflect current market conditions and cannot be a non-competitive retainer type of consulting contract prohibited by 2 CFR 200.319(b)(4). As indicated on page 13 in our Best Practice Guide for Procuring Services, Supplies, and Equipment Under EPA Assistance Agreements, which is referenced in the NOFO including in Appendix G, EPA will accept properly competed long-term contracts that are 5 years or less in length. We also expect recipients to ensure that the pricing under Master Service Agreements remains consistent with market conditions to meet the “reasonable cost” standard in 2 CFR 200.404, which applies to all expenditures of grant funds.

1. If we have already completed a competitive procurement in advance of applying, can we list the contractor/consultant in the application? And does this apply to engineering contracts as well?

For the first question, yes, provided the procurement process complied with the requirements specified in the Procurement Standards in 2 CFR Part 200, the Good Faith Efforts to encourage participation of small and disadvantaged businesses described in 40 CFR 33.301, and the compensation that you intend to charge to the grant for individual consultants (if any) complies with 2 CFR 1500.10. Please refer to the Best Practice Guide for Procuring Services, Supplies, and Equipment Under EPA Assistance Agreements, which is incorporated into the CCG NOFO as well (See Appendix G). 

And yes, this requirement applies to engineering contracts as well, although for architectural and engineering (A/E) services you may use a qualifications-based competitive procurement as long as the requirements in 2 CFR 200.320(b)(2)(iv) are met. EPA also recognizes that geographic preferences may be used as provided in 2 CFR 200.319(c). Note that EPA takes the position that qualifications-based and geographic preference procurements may only be used to acquire services such as the development of building specifications that must be performed by a licensed A/E firm under state or local law.

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