Best Value

Best value is a procurement approach in which the government selects the offer that provides the greatest overall benefit to the government, considering price or cost and other evaluation factors stated in the solicitation. Unlike lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) where the lowest-priced acceptable offer wins, best value allows agencies to make tradeoffs between technical merit and price. A higher-priced offer with superior technical approach may be selected if the technical superiority is worth the price premium. The relative importance of price versus technical factors must be stated in the solicitation. Best value source selections require detailed documentation of the tradeoff analysis explaining why the selected offer provides the best value. Best value is required for certain procurements and preferred for complex requirements.