Past performance when you have no federal contracts: what the rules say

FAR 15.304(c)(3)(i) says past performance shall be evaluated in all source selections for negotiated competitive acquisitions expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold. The exception, in (c)(3)(iii), is that it need not be evaluated if the contracting officer documents the reason it is not an appropriate evaluation factor for the acquisition. A purchase below that threshold is not what that paragraph covers.

FAR 15.304(d) says every factor and significant subfactor that will affect award, with its relative importance, shall be stated clearly in the solicitation, and that the general approach for evaluating past performance information shall be described. Past performance is one factor among others: FAR 15.304(c)(2) names it beside compliance with solicitation requirements, technical excellence, management capability, personnel qualifications and prior experience. Sections L and M of a solicitation says where the factors and the instructions are written.

FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iv) covers an offeror without a record of relevant past performance, or for whom information on past performance is not available. That offeror "may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably" on past performance.

FAR 15.305(a)(2)(ii) adds that the solicitation shall describe the approach for evaluating past performance, including evaluating offerors with no relevant performance history. FAR 15.305(a) says an agency evaluates proposals and assesses their relative qualities solely on the factors and subfactors the solicitation specifies, so the solicitation's own words are what apply.

The paragraph keeps a missing record from counting against an offeror on this factor, and from counting for it. It does not say how that result sits beside the other factors, or beside offerors whose records are relevant.

Not by itself, with one exception the rule names. FAR 9.104-1 lists the general standards a prospective contractor must meet to be determined responsible, and paragraph (c) is a satisfactory performance record. The same paragraph adds that a prospective contractor shall not be determined responsible or nonresponsible solely on the basis of a lack of relevant performance history, except as provided in FAR 9.104-2.

That exception is FAR 9.104-2: when a particular acquisition needs them, the contracting officer develops special standards of responsibility, which the solicitation sets out and identifies and which apply to all offerors. FAR 15.305(a)(2)(i) also says the comparative assessment of past performance information is separate from the responsibility determination required under subpart 9.1.

Section L, the instructions to offerors, can ask for a past performance part of the proposal: FAR 15.204-5(b) lists past performance among the parts the instructions may specify, beside administrative, management and technical parts.

FAR 15.305(a)(2)(ii) says the solicitation shall give offerors an opportunity to identify past or current contracts, including Federal, State and local government and private ones, for efforts similar to the Government requirement. It shall also authorize offerors to provide information on problems encountered on those contracts and their corrective actions. The Government considers that information along with information from any other sources, and the source selection authority determines the relevance of similar past performance information. For information it does have, FAR 15.305(a)(2)(i) says the agency shall consider its currency and relevance, its source, its context and general trends in the contractor's performance.

FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii) adds that the evaluation should take into account past performance information about predecessor companies, about key personnel who have relevant experience, or about subcontractors that will perform major or critical aspects of the requirement, when that information is relevant. Anything else a solicitation asks for, such as a format, is in its own Section L.

SBA's rule at 13 CFR 125.11 says agencies are required to consider the past performance of certain small business offerors that have been members of joint ventures or first-tier subcontractors, similarly to a prime contractor's past performance. A small business that has been a member of a joint venture may elect to use the joint venture's experience and past performance for a prime contract offer where it does not independently demonstrate the past performance necessary for award, but it cannot use as its own work that was performed exclusively by other partners to the joint venture.

A small business concern may also ask the prime contractor for a rating of its subcontractor past performance, for a contract on which it was a first-tier subcontractor and which included a subcontracting plan. The rule sets time limits for the prime to provide the rating and for the subcontractor to ask for it, and says that when a business elects to use a rating in a prime contract offer, the contracting officer shall consider it, including where the business has no prime contractor rating in CPARS. Whether a business counts as small for a given contract is a size question that is the owner's to answer, and the card just below this guide lists free counselors who can explain it.

Because the solicitation has to let offerors identify private contracts too, earlier work for private companies, a city or a school can be described as the business's own record: the customer, what the business did, when, and the NAICS code that fits the work. State what the business's own records show, and nothing more. Whether an agency finds that work relevant is for the source selection authority to determine, and this guide cannot say how it will be weighed.

Say who did the work. Work the business itself did is its record. Work by key personnel, a predecessor company or a subcontractor is named as theirs, the way FAR 15.305(a)(2)(iii) names them, and the joint venture rule above says a small business cannot use as its own work performed exclusively by other partners. Your capability statement has a place for these descriptions, and Sources sought notices says a notice may ask for a short description of relevant experience and past performance.

It cannot say how any agency will weigh a record, whether a record is relevant to a given requirement, or what a business should bid on, which is the owner's decision. Past federal contract awards shows the public history of earlier awards, which is not a measure of your record. How to find federal contracts and Federal contracts for any business cover where a business starts.

Firmenza's capability statement page has a past performance field, in your own words, one item per line. If you keep past performance records in Firmenza, a proposal draft is written from the notice's requirements, your capability statement, those records and the facts you choose, with the source of each sentence shown, and says "Information needed from you" where it has none. The AI assistant writes the draft, you review it and submit it yourself, and proposal drafts are part of Pro and its trial; the pricing page says what Pro includes. Contract opportunity matches in Firmenza goes through the tools.