By Scott Knapp

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Many times the consultants at the Nebraska Procurement Technical Assistance Center answer the phone to the question of, where do I find the drawings and specifications for the job I just saw advertised.

This question may lead to a lot of investigation by the PTAC consultant only to come up with the answer of “they are not available”. This usually leads to the next question, “how can the government be buying something that they don’t have the drawings and specifications for?”

At the recent national APTAC conference that very question was put to panelists representing the Tank and Armament Command. They told the PTAC counselors from around the nation, that government officials had made a decision in the 90’s to do some things to economize in the purchasing. One of those was to not buy the drawings and specifications as had been done previously. Those panelists were asked if there was any intention to make a change to buy those drawings, they said no.

This does not mean there aren’t plenty of contracts where companies can find the drawings and specifications for bidding, or that there are not other ways to be able to work through the process of selling to the government.

Drawings and specifications are now more hidden because of national security issues. Some of the drawings for products that might be sold to the Defense Supply Centers may require the contractor to first register using the JCP form. This is the U.S./Canada Joint Certification Procedure form. There are also DoD Specifications and Standards that a company has to register to obtain. Once a company is registered under the JCP program, they are eligible to look at drawings in the Defense Supply Center postings. Many of these drawings posted there may be posted in another area called the cFolders which require a user name and password. Registering in those areas will allow you to begin finding the drawing information if it is available. These are in a digitized Raster 4 system.

There are also other drawings and specifications that have to be accessed through the FedTed’s system. Again requiring a registration process.

Other organizations like the Bureau of Reclamation will not release their drawing documents on the websites; they have to be requested to be sent to the contractor on CD’s.

Also, the PTAC consultants caution their clients to make sure they are looking at a solicitation, many times the company officials are looking for the drawings after seeing a Pre-solicitation. Ordinarily, the job has to be at the solicitation level before the drawings will be released.