FAR 6.502—Duties and responsibilities.
Plain-English Summary
FAR 6.502 explains the duties and responsibilities of agency and procuring activity advocates for competition. It is designed to make competition an active management responsibility, not just a contracting-office formality, by requiring these advocates to promote the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services, promote full and open competition, and challenge requirements or contract terms that unnecessarily limit competition. The section also requires them to identify and report barriers to commercial-item buying and competition, review agency contracting operations, and prepare annual reports to senior acquisition leadership. In addition, it calls for recommendations on fiscal-year competition goals, plans, and accountability systems, including possible recognition and awards to encourage competition-minded behavior. Practically, this section matters because it ties competition policy to agency oversight, reporting, and leadership accountability, and it specifically highlights planning and compliance for task and delivery orders over $1.5 million under multiple-award contracts.
Key Rules
Promote commercial buying
Agency and procuring activity advocates for competition must actively promote the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services. This means they should look for opportunities to use commercial solutions whenever they can meet the agency’s needs.
Promote full and open competition
These advocates must also promote full and open competition across contracting actions. The goal is to ensure competition is the default approach unless a valid exception applies.
Challenge nonperformance-based requirements
Advocates must challenge requirements that are not written in terms of functions to be performed, performance required, or essential physical characteristics. This pushes agencies to describe needs in outcome-based terms rather than overly prescriptive or brand-like terms.
Challenge barriers to commercial items
They must identify and challenge barriers that make it harder to acquire commercial products or commercial services. This includes internal practices, specifications, or policies that unnecessarily steer the agency away from commercial solutions.
Challenge restrictive competition practices
Advocates must challenge barriers to full and open competition, including unnecessarily restrictive statements of work, overly detailed specifications, and unnecessarily burdensome contract clauses. The focus is on removing avoidable limits on vendor participation.
Review and report agency operations
Agency advocates must review contracting operations and report to the senior procurement executive and chief acquisition officer on opportunities and actions related to commercial buying, competition, performance-based requirements, and any conditions that unnecessarily restrict competition or commercial acquisitions.
Submit annual advocacy report
They must prepare and submit an annual report, in accordance with agency procedures, describing their activities, new initiatives to increase commercial buying and competition, remaining barriers, training and research efforts, and initiatives to ensure task and delivery orders over $1.5 million under multiple-award contracts are properly planned, issued, and compliant with FAR 8.405 and 16.505.
Set goals and accountability
Advocates must recommend fiscal-year goals and plans for increasing competition, and they must recommend a system of personal and organizational accountability. That accountability system may include recognition and awards to encourage program managers, contracting officers, and others to promote competition.
Responsibilities
Agency and Procuring Activity Advocates for Competition
Promote commercial products and commercial services, promote full and open competition, challenge non-performance-based requirements, challenge barriers to commercial acquisitions, and challenge unnecessarily restrictive work statements, specifications, and contract clauses.
Agency Advocates for Competition
Review agency contracting operations; identify and report opportunities, actions, and barriers related to commercial acquisitions and competition; prepare and submit the annual report; recommend fiscal-year competition goals and plans; and recommend accountability systems, including recognition and awards.
Agency Senior Procurement Executive
Receive reports and recommendations from the advocate for competition, consider agency-wide opportunities and barriers, and use the information to guide policy, goals, and accountability measures.
Chief Acquisition Officer
Receive reports and recommendations from the advocate for competition, evaluate agency competition performance and initiatives, and support leadership actions to improve commercial buying and competition.
Program Managers and Contracting Officers
Respond to advocacy efforts by shaping requirements in functional or performance terms, avoiding unnecessary restrictions, planning task and delivery orders properly, and supporting competition goals and accountability measures.
Practical Implications
This section makes competition a leadership and oversight function, so agencies should expect regular review of acquisition practices, not just case-by-case contract file checks.
A common pitfall is writing requirements too narrowly or too prescriptively, which can block commercial solutions and reduce competition even when the agency did not intend to do so.
Another frequent issue is failing to plan and document task and delivery orders over $1.5 million under multiple-award contracts in a way that complies with FAR 8.405 and 16.505.
Contracting teams should watch for contract clauses, specifications, or statements of work that are more burdensome than necessary, because those can become reportable barriers.
For contractors, this section can indirectly improve access to opportunities by pushing agencies toward commercial items and broader competition; for agencies, it creates a paper trail and leadership accountability for competition performance.
Official Regulatory Text
(a) Agency and procuring activity advocates for competition are responsible for— (1) Promoting the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services; (2) Promoting full and open competition; (3) Challenging requirements that are not stated in terms of functions to be performed, performance required, or essential physical characteristics; (4) Challenging barriers to the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services; and (5) Challenging barriers to full and open competition such as unnecessarily restrictive statements of work, unnecessarily detailed specifications, and unnecessarily burdensome contract clauses. (b) Agency advocates for competition shall— (1) Review the contracting operations of the agency and identify and report to the agency senior procurement executive and the chief acquisition officer– (i) Opportunities and actions taken to acquire commercial products and commercial services to meet the needs of the agency; (ii) Opportunities and actions taken to achieve full and open competition in the contracting operations of the agency; (iii) Actions taken to challenge requirements that are not stated in terms of functions to be performed, performance required or essential physical characteristics; (iv) Any condition or action that has the effect of unnecessarily restricting the acquisition of commercial products or commercial services or unnecessarily restricting competition in the contract actions of the agency; (2) Prepare and submit an annual report to the agency senior procurement executive and the chief acquisition officer in accordance with agency procedures, describing– (i) Such advocate’s activities under this subpart; (ii) New initiatives required to increase the acquisition of commercial products and commercial services; (iii) New initiatives required to increase competition; (iv) New initiatives to ensure requirements are stated in terms of functions to be performed, performance required or essential physical characteristics; (v) Any barriers to the acquisition of commercial products, commercial services, or competition that remain; (vi) Other ways in which the agency has emphasized the acquisition of commercial products, commercial services, and competition in areas such as acquisition training and research; and (vii) Initiatives that ensure task and delivery orders over $1.5 million issued under multiple award contracts are properly planned, issued, and comply with 8.405 and 16.505 . (3) Recommend goals and plans for increasing competition on a fiscal year basis to the agency senior procurement executive and the chief acquisition officer; and (4) Recommend to the agency senior procurement executive and the chief acquisition officer a system of personal and organizational accountability for competition, which may include the use of recognition and awards to motivate program managers, contracting officers, and others in authority to promote competition in acquisition.