Getting Started

Working with the Acquisition Services Directorate

We welcome the opportunity to discuss your project, and help you learn about us. Federal program managers may contact AQD at (703) 964-8800 or email the new business team. We can discuss your project requirements, what you are looking to accomplish, and tell you about our acquisition organization.

When you are ready to move forward with us, you may submit any documentation that supports your requirements to a new business agent for evaluation and acceptance.

Download the full summary of responsibilities.


Project Requirements


  • Provide a clear description of your requirements through a Statement of Work/Statement of Objectives/Performance Based Work Statement

  • Include the independent government cost estimate (IGCE):

    Include an Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE). The IGCE is a required component of procurement planning. Procurement planning uses the IGCE as a baseline for conducting negotiations with the Contractor. For labor, these negotiations focus on the number of hours estimated to execute the task along with labor categories. Because hourly rates vary across labor categories, it is important that the estimator take care to provide realistic hourly estimates. Travel, materials, supplies, and other direct costs are to be considered when developing an IGCE. A well-constructed IGCE helps to ensure that the requesting agency receives services at a fair and reasonable cost and that any negotiations involved are kept to a minimum.

    For instructions and templates that you can use to help complete an IGCE, refer to the links below.

    IGCE Instructions (pdf 25k, doc 41k)
    IGCE Worksheet  (pdf 27k, doc 69k)
    IGCE Template    (pdf 18k, xls 44k)


  • Period of Performance

  • Desired award date

AQD will review your information and notify you if the project is accepted.

Upon acceptance of the project requirements by AQD, the funding document will be sent to us and your project will be formally assigned to a Contracting Officer.

Funding and Documentation


The Acquisition Services Directorate will accept all funding documents, including Military Interdepartmental Purchase Requests (MIPRs), Interagency Agreements (IAs), Work Orders, or Purchase Requisitions.

For Department of the Interior Office of the Secretary customers, please review the DOI OS Requisitions guidance.

We will accept the funds from the Ordering Agency in advance for the purpose of fulfilling the bona fide need. The bona fide needs rule mandates that a fiscal year's appropriation is obligated to meet a need arising in the fiscal year for which the appropriation was made.

Define the Project with a Bona Fide Need. Provide a clear description of your requirements, project, or Statement of Work/Statement of Objectives, the estimated cost, your expected delivery date, and period of performance. To learn more about bona fide need, please go to our FAQs page. Your bona fide need for the project cannot change throughout the life of the project.

The obligation includes the cost of the acquisition and our service fee (typically 5% of contract award amount). Once funds are accepted, we will begin working on the project.

Funding Document Details


The funding document, an Interagency Agreement (IA) or Military Interdepartmental Request (MIPR), are now referred to as Part B. This is a designation by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. Part B, as the funding instrument, is sent to AQD. Often, our clients still attach their agency IA or MIPR at the end of Part B as an attachment.

The funding document must include the bona fide need. Your Contracting Officer will review the funding document for bona fide need and will look for specificity in the description statement.

We are required to collect the following data elements for your agency:

Appropriation Number or Treasury Symbol
Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS)
Agency Location Code (ALC)
Station Code (SC)
Trading Partner Number (TPN)
Agency Identification Code
Office Identification Code
First and Last Year of Availability
Type of Funding

___ One year
___ Multi Year
___ No Year

Agreements between Agencies

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) released government-wide guidance on interagency acquisitions with specific requirements for the content and format of Service Level and Interagency Agreements.

In accordance with OFPP guidelines, the Acquisition Services Directorate developed a standard format for Service Level Agreements (Part A) and Interagency Agreements (Part B). This page contains the information and templates for Part A and Part B.

Interagency Agreement
Part A
(16-page doc, 134 kb)
 		Part B
(seven-page doc, 90 kb)

Part A
Contains the general terms and conditions and may cover a single assisted acquisition or serve as an umbrella document to cover multiple assisted acquisitions. The Funding Team at AQD can assist with completion of this form. Email the Funding Team.

Part B
Serves as the funding document and provides specific information on the requesting agency's requirement. The Acquisition Services Directorate is required to have a signed Part A on file before accepting Part B.

Clients are permitted to submit their own funding document, if required by their agency, in addition to Part B. For example, DoD clients may submit a Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request in addition to Part B. The combination of Parts A and B creates a financial obligation.

Accounting Information from Requesting Agency - Part B

Data Elements Description
Basic appropriation symbol Obtain Treasury account symbol from your funding office or visit Treasury Fastbook
Amount obligated Contract costs plus the Acquisition Services Directorate's service charge
Fund citation The amount of each individual fund citation/line of accounting
Appropriation expiration date The Fiscal Year of funds availability
Type of funds Note the number of years the funds are available such as one year, two year, multi-year, or no-year funds
Unique restrictions on funding List any restrictions on the funding not previously identified, if any
Business event type code Reference Treasury BETC info
Reference Treasury TAS info
Agency location code Enter the eight-digit (8) ALC for Intra-governmental Payment and Collection Systems (IPAC)
Agency Identification Code Agency Identification Code
Codes for the Identification of Federal and Federally Assisted Organizations (pdf, 406 kb)
Office Identification Code Subset of Agency code to further define agency

The Acquisition Services Directorate (Servicing Agency) Funding Information

Data Elements Description
Basic appropriation symbol 14X4529 Treasury account symbol
Fund citation Please contact the Acquisition Services Directorate for this line of accounting information, used for internal DOI clients only
Business event type code Please contact the Acquisition Services Directorate for this information
CAGE (Commercial and Government Entity) OSA44 - Herndon Office
Agency location code 14-01-0001 - Herndon Office
DUNS / Business Partner Number 059627781 - Herndon Office


If you have funding questions, need assistance in locating codes, or any other issues pertaining to funding, please email the Funding Team .