Federal Contract Opportunities
An explanation of Federal Contract Opportunities on GovTribe, and annotated description of related pages
A Federal Contract is an agreement between the federal government and a prime recipient (contractor/vendor) to provide goods and services for a fee, including all types of commitments that obligate the government to an expenditure of appropriated funds and that, except as otherwise authorized, are in writing. In addition to bilateral instruments, contracts include (but are not limited to) awards and notices of awards; job orders or task letters issued under basic ordering agreements; letter contracts; orders, such as purchase orders, under which the contract becomes effective by written acceptance or performance; and bilateral contract modifications. Contracts do not include grants and cooperative agreements covered by 31 U.S.C. 6301, et seq.
About Federal Contract Opportunities on GovTribe
Federal Contract Opportunities on GovTribe are mined in near realtime from the authoritative website for federal contracting opportunities, beta.sam.gov. (Any data prior to November 2019 came from FBO.gov.)
In addition, GovTribe mines all award and spending information for all federal contracts, regardless of the procurement process and exceptions listed below. Federal contract award data can be found in the Awards section of the GovTribe main menu:
Procurement Data Exceptions
There are some types of Federal Contract Opportunities that GovTribe is not able to post. These are generally any opportunities that are being bid on limited competition multiple award vehicles. For example, GSA Schedule opportunities cannot be found on GovTribe. This is because the GSA has a private portal available only to GSA Schedule contract holders (GSA eBuy) and specifically disallows companies like GovTribe to mine and re-post that information.
Many GWACs (Governmentwide Acquisition vehicles) or large IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity) contracts also have private portals with similar restrictions. Procurements under the GWACs Alliant II and 8a STARS II are also run through eBuy. The Navy's Seaport-e IDIQ has its own private acquisition portal with similar restrictions on reposting solicitation information.
It is also important to understand that a large number of smaller multiple award IDIQ contracts do not post public solicitations at all. Procurements under IDIQs like Homeland Security's Eagle II are executed by government contracting personnel emailing solicitation documents directly to contract-holders. So it is not possible for GovTribe to acquire and repost those.
Federal Contract Opportunities Search Page
To access the Main Federal Contract Opportunities Search Page:
Step 1. Go to: Main Menu >> Opportunities >> Federal Contract Opportunities. (Take me there)
The Federal Contract Opportunities Search Page will be displayed, which allows you to access and view Federal Contract Opportunities sourced by GovTribe.
Please refer to the following for details on how to use this page to search for opportunities:
The following image describes this page and its features and functionality. Note the following:
Federal Contract Opportunity Detail Page
To access a Federal Contract Opportunity’s Detail Page:
Step 1. Go to: Main Menu >> Opportunities >> Federal Contract Opportunities (take me there), then click on the Title of any Contract Opportunity listed (or its View button).
The Federal Contract Opportunities Detail Page will be displayed.
Details Section
This section displays details and relevant information about the contract opportunity, as shown below.
Similar Opportunities Section
This section displays a list of contracts that are similar to the selected contract, as shown below.
Related Federal Contract Opportunities Section
This section appears only when a pre-solicitation is linked to a solicitation (and vice versa), as shown below.
Federal Contract / IDV / Vehicle Awards Sections
These sections appear only when related Awards exist. The first example below shows Federal Contract Awards related to this Contract Opportunity.
This second example shows Federal Contract IDV Awards related to this Contract Opportunity.
This third example shows Federal Contract Vehicle Awards related to this Contract Opportunity.
Federal People Section
This section displays a list of federal agency people who are associated with the contract opportunity, as shown below.
Government Files Section
This section displays a list of downloadable files associated with the opportunity, as shown below.
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