Cyber Defense eMagazine December Edition for 2021

Understanding OCIs
Contracting officers are required to determine whether a potential or actual OCI will arise as early in an
acquisition as possible. 3 If the award to a particular offeror would result in an actual or potential OCI, and
the OCI cannot be mitigated or avoided, the offeror will likely be deemed ineligible for the award.
There are three types of OCIs:
• Unequal Access to Information: This type of OCI arises in situations in which a contractor has
access to non-public information as part of its performance of one government contract and that
information may provide the firm with a competitive advantage in a later competition for another
government contract.
• Biased Ground Rules: This type of OCI issue arises in situations when a contractor, as part of
its performance of a government contract, has, in some sense, set the ground rules for
government procurement, for example, by preparing the statement of work or the specifications.
The concern with a biased ground rules OCI is that the contractor may have skewed the
procurement in the contractor’s favor – even if unintentionally.
• Impaired Objectivity: This type of OCI issue arises in cases when a contractor’s work under one
government contract could entail it evaluating itself, an affiliate, or a competitor, either through an
assessment of performance under another contract or an evaluation of proposals as part of
another contract. This type of OCI occurs when the contractor may not be able to provide the
government with impartial advice or assessments.
It is important to recognize that a single contract may give rise to more than one type of OCI. For example,
if a contractor was performing a contract that involved independent verification and validation (IV&V)
tasks related to IT systems used by an agency, the contractor could have both an equal access to
information OCI and an impaired objectivity OCI. The unequal access to information OCI would result
from the contractor having access to nonpublic information about the IT systems provided to the agency
by other contractors. And, an impaired objectivity OCI could arise because the IV&V tasks would likely
require the contractor to assess the services or products provided by other contractors.
OCI Risks for Cybersecurity and IT Services
The type of tasks common to contracts involving cybersecurity or IT services can increase the risk of an
OCI. Namely, providing these types of services to the government often puts a contractor in a position
where it has access to nonpublic government or competitor information – an unequal access to
information OCI – or requires the contractor to assess the services or products provided by competitors
or affiliates – an impaired objectivity OCI.
3 48 C.F.R. 9.504(a)(1).
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