Welcome to Feldesman’s Grants Practice Shorts series where we discuss helpful tips and strategies in common areas of federal grant management. Be sure to check out our other installments on our Grants Practice Shorts page.

Sole Sourcing

Known as “non-competitive procurement,” sole-sourced contracts may be awarded if one or more of these circumstances apply:

• Purchases up to $10,000;
• Item is available from a single source;
• A public exigency or emergency for the item does not permit a delay that would result from “competing ” the procurement;
• Written, prior approval from the federal funding agency; or
• After solicitation of a number of sources, competition is determined inadequate.

As best practices, for sole-sourced procurements, it is appropriate to prepare a memo to the file, kept in the procurement file, explaining the context and reasons that justify sole sourcing the purchase, including specific facts supporting the appropriate, relevant sole-source justification(s) from the list of five options in 2 C.F.R. § 200.320(c). Note that no such memo is needed for purchases under $10,000, as non-competitive procurement is permitted for micro-purchases per 2 C.F.R. 200.320(a)(1)(ii).

For questions concerning our Grants Practice Shorts series, please contact Phillip A. Escoriaza, Senior Counsel, at 202.466.8960 or pescoriaza@feldesman.com.