(a) MAP Participants have full and sole responsibility for the legal sufficiency of all contracts and assume financial liability for any costs or claims resulting from suits, challenges, or other disputes based on contracts entered into by the MAP Participant. Neither CCC nor any other agency of the U.S. Government nor any official or employee of CCC, FAS, USDA, or the U.S. Government has any obligation or responsibility with respect to MAP Participant contracts with third parties.

(b) A MAP Participant shall comply with the procurement standards set forth below and in 2 CFR part 200 when procuring goods and services and when engaging in construction to implement agreements.

(c) Each MAP Participant shall establish open, fair, and competitive contracting procedures for contracts that are funded, in whole or in part, with MAP funds.

(d) Each MAP Participant shall submit to CCC, for CCC approval, written contracting guidelines for contracts that are funded, in whole or in part, with MAP funds. CCC will notify all new and existing MAP Participants in writing in each Participant's approval letter and through the FAS website as to applicable submission dates for and dates for approvals of contracting guidelines. CCC's approval of such contracting guidelines will remain in place until CCC retracts its approval in writing, or until new guidelines are approved that supersede them. Once approved by CCC, these contracting guidelines shall govern all of a Participant's MAP-funded contracting involving contracts with an annual minimum value that CCC shall determine and announce in writing to all MAP Participants via a program notice issued on the FAS website. The guidelines shall indicate the method for evaluating proposals received for all contract competitions, the method for monitoring and evaluating performance under contracts, and the method for initiating corrective action for unsatisfactory performance under contracts. The MAP Participant may modify and resubmit these guidelines for re-approval at any time. In addition to the requirements in 2 CFR part 200, these guidelines shall include, at a minimum, the following:

(1) Procedures for developing and publicizing requests for proposals, invitations for bids, and similar documents that solicit third party offers to provide goods or services. Solicitations for professional and technical services shall be based on clear and accurate descriptions of and requirements related to the services to be procured. Such procedures must include a conflict of interest provision that states that no employee, officer, board member, or agent thereof of the MAP Participant will participate in the review, selection, award, or administration of a contract if a real or apparent conflict of interest would arise. Such a conflict would arise when an employee, official, board member, agent, or the employee's, officer's, board member's, or agent's family, partners, or an organization that employs or is about to employ any of these parties or their affiliates has a financial or other interest in the contract. Procedures shall provide that officers, employees, board members, and agents thereof shall neither solicit nor accept gratuities, favors, or anything of monetary value from contractors or subcontractors. Procedures shall also provide for disciplinary actions to be applied for violations of such standards by officers, employees, board members, or agents thereof;

(2) Procedures for reviewing proposals, bids, or other offers to provide goods and services. Separate procedures shall be developed for various situations, including, but not limited to: solicitations for highly technical services; solicitations for services that are not common in a specific market; sole source contracts; solicitations that yield receipt of three or more bids; or solicitations that yield receipt of fewer than three bids;

(3) Requirements to conduct all contracting in an openly competitive manner. Individuals who develop or draft specifications, requirements, statements of work, invitations for bids, and/or requests for proposals for procurement of any goods or services, and such individuals' families or partners, or an organization that employs or is about to employ any of the aforementioned, shall be excluded from competition for such procurement. MAP Participants' written contracting guidelines may detail special situations where the prohibitions in this subparagraph do not apply, such as in situations involving highly specialized technical services or situations where the services are not commonly offered in a specific market;

(4) Requirements to perform and document in the procurement files some form of price or cost analysis, such as a comparison of price quotations to market prices or other price indicia, to determine the reasonableness of the offered prices in connection with every procurement action that is governed by the contracting guidelines;

(5) Requirements to conduct an appropriate form of competition every 3 years on all multi-year contracts that are governed by the contracting guidelines. However, contracts for market representation are not required to be re-competed after the initial reward. Instead, the performance of market representation must be evaluated and documented by the MAP Participant annually to ensure that the terms of the contract are being met in a satisfactory manner; and

(6) Requirements for written contracts with each provider of goods, services, or construction work. Such contracts shall require such providers to maintain adequate records to account for funds provided to them by the MAP Participant.

(e) A MAP Participant may undertake MAP promotional activities directly or through a domestic or foreign subrecipient. However, the MAP Participant shall remain responsible and accountable to CCC for all MAP promotional activities and related expenditures undertaken by such subrecipient and shall be responsible for reimbursing CCC for any funds that CCC determines should be refunded to CCC in relation to such subrecipient's promotional activities and expenditures.