Speed and Thrift in Awarding Contracts.

• The government’s Contracting Officers (C.O.) are faced with declining budgets and a growing backlog of contracts that those budgets are to support. Consequently, they require both speed and thrift in awarding contracts to qualified vendors. But, the cost of awarding a contract through competitive bidding can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars and take up to nine months to complete. By contrast, a single-source, Direct Award to an ANC 8(a) typically costs a fraction of that amount and often can be completed in 4-6 weeks.

Ensuring Competitive Overhead and General & Administrative Cost Rates.

• Because Alaska Native Corporations such as EAS are large enough and efficient enough to ensure competitive Overhead and General & Administrative cost rates, the C.O. risks little in that regard. And, by using the ALPHA Contracting model, the government and its contractor develop a transparent relationship wherein the C.O. is virtually guaranteed the ability to negotiate a fair and reasonable price with few of the uncertainties associated with the competitive bidding process.
• The Direct Award process, properly executed, can be an exceptionally cost-effective and operationally-efficient alternative to competitive acquisition.

Small Business Utilization and Inventive Rebates of up to 5% of the total contract value.

• Direct Awards to ANC 8(a) participants such as EAS generally cannot be protested {13CFR124.517(a)}. Against the extended delays resulting from protests to hotly-contested awards, this advantage alone can save a Contracting Officer many weeks of uncertainty before project start-up. Awards by U.S. Government activities or Prime Contractors to Alaska Native Corporations such as EAS may be eligible for Incentive Rebates of up to 5% of the total contract value, under the Indian Incentive Program {FAR 26.1}. Also, a contract or sub-contract with EAS helps a Contracting Officer or Prime Contractor meet its mandatory Small Business Utilization requirement.