Pre-positioned (standby) contracts work if they were competed under federal rules and cover the work performed. FEMA advises against cooperative purchasing and piggyback contracts because they often fail federal procurement requirements.
FEMA reimburses reasonable costs under a pre-positioned contract if:
If you use a cooperative purchasing program, you must document how its use complied with all procurement requirements. Joint procurements, where two or more entities run one solicitation together, see fewer compliance problems.
The original solicitation and award for any pre-positioned contract, and a written compliance analysis for any cooperative purchase.
A piggyback contract was competed for someone else’s needs, so its scope rarely matches yours. Compete your own pre-positioned contracts before disaster season.