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can be categorized under training and development as it deviates from traditional solicitation publication methods; the acquisition workforce would need education on the value of taking these extra steps beyond the usual process. The posting of the CSO mimics a combination of market research techniques and the solicitation; embracing this recommendation takes advantage of this opportunity for efficiency and evolves it through combining additional pre-award elements of information sharing (FAR subpart 5.1), leading to further opportunities for efficiency. Improve Reporting of Negotiation Documentation to Capitalize on the Department’s System of Systems Our penultimate recommendation addresses a final policy, tracking, and reporting change. We recommend a policy change that expands the mandatory reporting requirement and upload of cost/price negotiation documents for all contract actions valued above $25 million regardless of the competitive nature of the requirement. The requirement to determine a fair and reasonable price is universal and does not distinguish between whether the action is competitive or noncompetitive. Our recommendation recognizes that when negotiations occur, FAR 15.406-3 requires that those negotiations be documented in some form. CSOs are not exempt from this documentation requirement when the contracting officer engages in negotiations. This change will provide additional resources to contracting officers in developing future negotiation objectives for both CSOs and those using FAR-based techniques by expanding the pool of available resources useful for preparing for and establishing negotiation objectives. We further recommend the Contract Business Analysis Repository (CBAR) tool be modified to include a field that requires solicitation and evaluation methodology when uploading a negotiation document. Including this field will enable a more streamlined method to conduct reviews and analyses of how fair and reasonable pricing is achieved for both CSOs and all other reportable contract actions. Further, even for contracts that do not exceed the minimum reporting threshold established in the DFARS Procedures, Guidance, and Information, DoD should consider requiring reporting of the process(es) used to determine fair and reasonable pricing, especially for commercial acquisitions, including those that used the CSO solicitation technique. This requirement will provide an array of valuable data, bolstering the negotiating process and lessening the narrow reliance on business acumen to determine price reasonableness. Scaling the CBAR tool could then lead to further applications to support negotiations, such as
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Defense ARJ , Spring 2025, Vol. 32 No. 1
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