Responding to a Novation Modification as the Purchasing Vendor

A novation is a legal instrument used to document the Government’s recognition of the transfer of an agreement from one vendor to another. Typically, the purchasing vendor notifies the CO to initiate the novation process.

Responding to the novation modification as a purchasing vendor:

1. From the Home page, in the Alert message, click on the Review Changes link OR click on the My Agreements tab to find the modification in progress. 
2. In the Agreement table, notice the indented row under the agreement, which indicates there is a modification to the agreement and displays the following information about the modification:

• Type of modification
• Award End Date
• Date the last modification was started
• Status - indicates the type of action required by you

Notice in the Response Status column the status is "Awaiting Vendor Signature."

3. In the table, in the Action column, click on the Submit a response to this modification icon () to view the modification summary.

IMPORTANT As the purchasing vendor, if you wish to change your Set-aside and/or LSA status, do so before you sign the novation modification and your changes will get picked up once the CO signs the novation modification.

4. In the Review Modification step, click on the View Mod PDF button () to view the modification.

NOTE: In the modification package, the SF-30 and SF-1449 forms and the vendor information sheet in the package will display the selling vendor's information UNTIL the CO signs the modification. Once the CO signs the modification, your contact information will be on the SF-1449 form and the latest SF-30 form. And, your company information will on the vendor information sheet in the package.

5. Click the Continue button to proceed to the next step.

6. In the Sign Modified Agreement step, read the modification signature statement and if you agree to the statement, select the 'I Agree' check box.
7. Click the Submit button to submit your signed agreement modification submission.

IMPORTANT If you have an expired SAM record or your company name, DBA, company address, or mailing address in VIPR is different than what is in your SAM record, then you will be unable to submit your response to the modification. Depending on the issue, you must go through SAM to active your SAM record OR use the "View/Import from SAM" button in the vendor application to get your VIPR company information in sync with SAM. Once the SAM issue is resolved, you can submit the modification response.

8. Once you receive confirmation that your response was successfully submitted, click the Exit button to exit the wizard.
9. In the My Agreements table, notice the Status column has a status of "Awaiting Contracting Officer Signature."

Once the CO signs the modification, the following occurs: 

• You will receive an email notice informing you that the transaction is completed and that you were issued a new agreement and the selling vendor's agreement was canceled.
• You will see the new agreement in your list of agreements in the My Agreements tab.
• You will see the resources associated with the selling vendor's agreement now in your list of resources on the My Resources tab.
• You can view the signed, new agreement by clicking on the View Agreement PDF icon ().
  • The Vendor information in the agreement package has your company information.
  • On the SF-1449, the Contractor/Offeror (Box 17a) information displays your information.
  • On the SF-30 form, the Name and Address of the Contractor (Box 8) displays your information.
  • The resources that were on the selling vendor's agreement are now associated with your new agreement and listed on the Schedule of Items.
• On the main Home page, the Alert message about the modification is removed.
• Once a CO signs a novation modification, the new agreement will use the purchasing vendor's Small Business and LSA status flags instead of the selling vendor's statuses.
• The CO publishes the updated DPLs to the VIPR Web site at https://www.fs.usda.gov/business/incident/dispatch.php. The DPL will show the purchasing vendor as the owner of the new agreement. The DPL will use the previous point value of the resources, but will apply the purchasing vendor's small business and LSA statuses to the ranking of the DPL.
• The CO publishes the new agreement to the VIPR Web site at https://www.fs.usda.gov/business/incident/vipragreements.php. The new agreement will designate the purchasing vendor as the owner of agreement.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the modification, contact the CO. Also, you should print the agreement for your records (see "Printing an Agreement").

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