Sole Source Selection:

A sole source means that the source has been determined in advance of purchase as the
only one available to satisfy the requirement.
It requires written justification. The justification needs to be based on:
Unique qualifications, or
Only available qualified offer or
Urgency client imposed by factors outside of contracting organizations controls
Follow-on Activity Justified by:
o Cost-efficiency (e.g. learning curve)
o Intellectual property issues
Client-approval or direction to use a specific source must come from a client
official authorized to issues such approval or direction.
In many cases, you are still required to prove price reasonableness. For example, if one
consultant was sole source because they were the one who could work the required period
of performance, the contracting agency would still be required to prove that the
consultants fees were reasonable compared to other consultants with similar skills and
backgrounds.
Samples Sole Source Justification:
#1 Room for Presentation at Conference
From:
Subject:

Joe Johnson
Project Assistant
Sole Source Justification: International Hotel

Project X applied and was accepted to present at the Nutrition Conference in Paris,
France. Project X Director John Smith and Deputy Director Jimmy Jones will be making
a presentation at the conference. Because the meetings are part of the official Nutrition
Conference they selected the rooms and arranged reservations for each presentation to be
held at the same hotel the rest of the conference is being held at. In order to be part of the
Nutrition Forum, Project Xs presentation must be made at the International Hotel in
Paris.
Estimates for similar services (room and equipment rental) were requested from three
other hotels in the area of the International Hotel: The National Hotel, City Hotel and
Neighborhood Hotel. No response was ever received from the City Hotel despite repeated
e-mails and phone calls. The Neighborhood Hotel responded that they had no availability
until July and that it was impossible for them to provide a quote that far in advance. The
National Hotel responded with a quote considerably above the price charged by the
International Hotel. Based upon these responses, we found the quote from the
International Hotel to be reasonable and fair.

#2 Law Firm for Project Registration

From:
Subject:

Joe Johnson
Project Assistant
Sole Source Justification: Jane Doe & Company

This memo serves as a justification for hiring Jane Doe & Company to take over the
process of registering Project X as a Liaison Office with the Government of X Country.
The following points serve as justification for the selection of Jane Doe:

The staff of Project Y arranged for competitive bidding and quotes for their own
project when they were preparing their registration (see attached matrix). Project
Y selected Smith and Co. but the company failed to perform at the standards
stated in their scope of work.
Project Y chose Jane Doe to replace Smith and Co. because she had previously
worked with Company A projects and successfully registered Company As
projects S and T in Country X.
Project X shares offices with Project Y and formerly shared the same imprest
account. As Ms. Doe is also handling Project Ys registration in Country X, she is
extremely familiar with the process and the way that Company B and USAID
projects work.
Based upon Project Ys experience with Smith & Co., Project X chose to work
with Jane Doe & Co. as they were the second lowest bid.
In addition, Jane Doe can facilitate opening a transition bank account immediately
so that Project X can have a more legitimate status in Country X while the
registration is pending.
Please see attached matrix and note that based upon Project Ys poor experience
with Smith and Co., Jane Doe and Co. was the best value compared to Thomas &
Partners.

Based on these reasons out-lined above, we feel that Jane Doe and Co. is the only
company capable of securing Projects X registration at this time.