Occupational therapy agreements may be awarded by themselves or result from the award of a competitive contracting process such as the opening of commercial solutions, a general agency announcement or a Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR). TOs are a mechanism for access to innovative research and development by non-traditional entrepreneurs faced with the standard requirements of traditional research and development contracts, grants or cooperation agreements. TOs can be used with traditional contractors if legal requirements are met. Occupational therapists offer flexibility that allows for greater speed, flexibility and accessibility for research and prototyping activities than is permitted by the laws and regulations that apply to traditional FAR-based contracts. OT agreements can be fixed-price, expense-based, or hybrid. OT consortia typically have 3 components, although some state sponsors choose to manage a consortium in-house rather than hiring an industrial consortium manager or consortium management company. The Consortium Manager receives an EO Agreement (Basic EO Agreement) from the government and manages the TOs allocated to its Consortium member organisations (Project EO Agreements) under the Basic Agreement. Much has been written on forums (if any) that may consider protests against assigning an OT to another company, especially since GAO issued a number of jurisdiction decisions in 2018 and 2019. In general, it is likely that neither the GAO nor the Federal Claims Court (FCOC) will exercise jurisdiction over an ordinary protest that challenges the selection of another provider for an OTA. However, GAO will consider protesting the misuse of OT authority as described in Spartan Medical, Inc., B-419503, System Architecture Info. Tech., B-418721, Oracle America, Inc., B-416061, and MD Helicopters, Inc., B-417379. According to gao, GAO is not responsible for protests related to EO requests or agreements without allegations of misuse of legal powers, as OTAs are not “supply contracts” within the meaning of the Competition in Contracts Act (CICA). OT prizes can be awarded by an OT consortium, but they can also be given directly by DoD programs with contract agents guaranteed appropriately.

(Contracting agents must have a separate authority as an agreement agent to issue occupational therapy agreements). For more information on the planning and execution of ERGO agreements, see the OSTP Innovative Contract Case Study Guide or the December 2018 OUSD A&S Other Transactions Guide. Other transactions (TOs) are contractual instruments other than standard supply agreements, subsidies or cooperation agreements. TOs may include flexible commercial agreements to acquire research and development activities to advance new technologies, and prototypes or models to assess the technical or manufacturing feasibility or military advantages of new or existing technologies. This may apply to processes, concepts, end products and systems of non-traditional defence companies* (as well as traditional defence companies where legal requirements for small business participation or cost-sharing arrangements are met) that provide the government with access to innovative solutions. TOs provide the opportunity to structure agreements that can leverage business practices and remove barriers to entry such as cost accounting (CAS) compliance and intellectual property rights requirements to encourage non-traditional defence contractors to do business with government. A OT is a common term that refers to any type of transaction, except a contract, grant, or cooperation agreement authorized by 10 U.S.C. 2371. Transactions carried out under this organization can take many forms and generally do not have to comply with federal laws and regulations that apply to supply contracts, grants, and/or cooperation agreements.

To the extent that a particular law or regulation is not bound by the type of instrument used (e.B. Tax and Property Laws), it would generally apply to a EO. Organizations with other transaction powers and contracting agents with the Agreement Officer Authority may execute TOs, but must establish processes for obtaining, evaluating, negotiating and awarding occupational therapy agreements. It is not recommended to use FAR processes to run OTs. There is no single established process for the execution of occupational therapists. Projects or programs that want to use TOs may want white papers, demonstrations, competitive prototyping, progressive selections, or any combination of these to develop a strategy to achieve the goals. A transaction that is not a supply contract, grant or cooperation agreement. Because this type of transaction is defined negatively, it can take an unlimited number of potential forms. The statutory authority empowers the Secretary of Homeland Security to enter into transactions other than supply contracts, grants, and cooperation agreements when conducting activities that are: DES TOs that are not subject to FAR and DFARS requirements (click here for more information on TOs). . . .