8-3.1 Professional and Technical Services

Definitions Generally, professional services are those performed by individuals or firms of recognized status, such as accounting, engineering, law, and the sciences. Technical services are provided by individuals or firms who are expert in a given field, such as IT, training, writing and editing, purchasing, marketing and demographics, and other such areas. These services may be used to: (a) provide needed expertise on an individual or group basis; (b) to supplement the career workforce as required by workload; and (c) to provide turn-key services in support of postal operations.

Licenses When prequalifying or purchasing professional services for which individuals are normally required to be licensed (such as medical, legal, accounting, and architecture), licenses must be required as a prerequisite to prequalification or contract award. Acceptable licenses may be limited to those issued by a particular state or entity, but only when local expertise is necessary to successful performance.

Required Clauses All contracts for professional/technical services must include the following clauses:

Depending on the particular purchase, the following clauses should be included in contracts for professional/technical services:

  • Clause 4-6: Invoices (Professional Services) — This clause is included in all non-fixed-price contracts for professional/technical services. The clause requires presentation of invoices showing who performed the services, the hours and partial hours of service provided each day, and the services provided each hour or partial hour. Suppliers may be allowed to set minimum charges for partial hours or days.
  • Clause 4-8: Key Personnel — This clause requires use of the key personnel identified in the supplier’s proposal, unless the CO approves substitution, and provides for contract termination for failure to comply.
  • Clause 1-1: Privacy Protection must be included as applicable. See the discussion in Section 7-14, Privacy Considerations.