What should small businesses know about DOE management and operating contract competitions?
DOE says M&O awards use full and open competition, with subcontracting plans, annual goals, MOSRC reporting, and purchase-review rules.
AI-assisted and automatically checked against the linked primary sources.
What is the scope of the competition?
According to DOE’s DEAR Subpart 917.6, the subpart implements 48 CFR subpart 17.6 and applies to any Department of Energy management and operating contract. DOE states that its policy is to provide for full and open competition in the award of management and operating contracts. The same provision also says use of an M&O contract must be authorized by the Secretary. A contract may be extended at the end of its term without full and open competition only when the extension is justified under one of the statutory authorities identified in FAR 6.302 and authorized by the Secretary. On the bidder question, the cited text does not set out a small-business-only competition or any bidder eligibility rule beyond that DOE-wide competition policy. In other words, the source frames the competition as a DOE M&O award process, with a limited exception for certain extensions, rather than as a separate small-business program rule.