Effects of Lowest Price-Technically Acceptable (LPTA) Contracting On Laboratory Data Quality Authors Jamie Fox, Paul Wi

1. Effects of Lowest Price-Technically Acceptable (LPTA) Contracting On Laboratory Data Quality Authors Jamie Fox, Paul Winkler, Ph.D., Mark Minteer www.aqainc.net

2. Two Contracting Approaches • Best value • Scoring approach to proposals • Technical proposals are scored rather than simply pass/fail • Technically excellent laboratories have a distinct advantage • Technical score and price score are normalized and combined to reach a final score • It takes money to support a rock-solid QA infrastructure Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

3. Two Contracting Approaches • LPTA • Bidding laboratories have to show minimum technical acceptability • All passing laboratories – those that can get over the bar of minimum acceptability - are dropped into the “acceptable” pool and then lowest price wins • There can be a large difference between laboratories that merely squeak over the bar and those that fly over it Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

4. If you operate in a low-bid environment, you must maintain the ability to analyze samples. • Where do you cut costs? • QA infrastructure • IT infrastructure • Data reporting • Project management • Eliminate sample re-analyses for quality problems • Salary reductions which result in loss of talent Pay Now or Pay Later Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

5. Effects of LPTA on Laboratory Operations • You are not the lowest bidder, you lose! • Increased laboratory burden • Decreased per sample price / increased number of samples to generate same revenue • Analytical shortcuts • Decreased quality assurance oversight • Deliverable corrections and CAR responses incomplete and/or not delivered in a timely manner Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

6. LPTA Raising The Bar • Laboratory scope and capacity • Proper equipment • Qualified personnel • Quality systems • Reporting capability Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

7. What Factors Should Be Considered For Technical Acceptability? • Instrument capacity / quality / maintenance practices • Comprehensive and compliant SOPs • Adherence to SOPs • Sophisticated NCM process • Qualified chemists • On-time performance • Lab responsiveness • Performance of QC samples • PE performance • Past audits • Lab certifications • Login, tracking, LIMS sophistication • Triggers for proper extract cleanup Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

8. Review of Technical Acceptability • Assessment of technical acceptability must be done rigorously by qualified analytical chemists who can assess all criteria just mentioned • Must be able to use historical information to determine validity of claims • Information supplied by laboratories must be verifiably comprehensive and accurate • Laboratory assertions are often misleading at best Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

9. Consequences of Inadequate Verification • Acquisition of indefensible data • Misleading data such as false positives or false negatives • Diminished quality (excessive qualification) • Contracts awarded to laboratories that do not have sufficient capacity to generate compliant data on-time Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

10. Summary Best value gives you the best product for your dollar Current approach to LPTA contracting commonly forces a decrease in laboratory data quality Need to raise the bar to meet your project requirements Rigorous technical acceptability verification is a must Your Environmental Data Quality Experts

11. Contact Us Paul Winkler, Ph.D. Senior Scientist pwinkler@aqainc.net Cell: (303) 882-0792 Mark Minteer President minteer@aol.com Office: (505) 299-5201 Headquarters: Albuquerque, NM Phone: (888) 678-5447 http://www.aqainc.net Other Locations: Colorado, Nevada, & South Carolina Jamie Fox Chemist jfox@aqainc.net Cell: (505) 307-3770 Your Environmental Data Quality Experts