Welcome to the Incident Procurement website serving our interagency partners and current or potential vendors. Please click on one of the tab links provided above so we can help you find what you are looking for.
Find information about working with the Forest Service. If you're already a current Forest Service vendor, get information about the tools you need to use to manage your contracts.
Welcome commercial vendors! Are you currently under contract or interested in doing business with us? Use this portal as your one-stop shop for getting things done. Click on the "How to Sign Up" tab if you are new to doing incident business with us. Click on the "Current Vendors" link if you are already under contract or responding to a solicitation from us.
Contracting staff in the Equipment and Services (ESB) Branch will soon be soliciting for new awards in the following VIPR agreements.
These solicitations are scheduled to be advertised soon. It is recommended to check SAM.gov frequently for the most current information.
In order to do business with the Government, vendors MUST have an active SAM account. For vendors who use VIPR, they MUST ensure certain company information they provide in VIPR matches the same type of information that is found in their SAM record. VIPR and SAM share the following vendor company information:
Ensuring the above information matches in both systems is critical in order for payments to be made to vendors.
To assist vendors with keeping their company information in sync across both systems, VIPR now has an interconnection with SAM. VIPR will do validation checks against SAM data throughout various phases in the procurement process:
All vendors wishing to obtain a preseason incident agreement (either new or existing) with the Forest Service must use the new Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) application. Using VIPR will require that vendors obtain a Login.gov Account. For questions about Login.gov, contact the Login.gov team at https://www.login.gov/contact/ or their Help Center at https://www.login.gov/help/.
The Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) system was successfully introduced to production in January of 2009. Forest Service regions use VIPR to issue solicitations and award agreements for resources secured under preseason agreements. For information on the types of resources and the schedule the Forest Service follows to solicit, check out the National Solicitation Plan.
Major efforts are underway to simplify and streamline our systems to make it easier to work with us and to provide more efficient processing of payments. Until those efforts are completed, the steps below should help you navigate the current mix of systems.
Aviation Contractors: Anyone currently under contract for aviation services can work directly with your contracting officer or contracting officer’s representative (COR). For invoicing and payment purposes, you must use your eAuthentication account to access the Aviation Business System (ABS).
Equipment Contractors: All preseason incident agreements are administered in the Virtual Incident Procurement system, or VIPR. Please visit the VIPR Web site for more information.
The Forest Service AQM staff is working hard to standardize the procurement process across all regions and encourage open competition for all who participate. Efforts include a National Solicitation Plan for I-BPAs which specifies when each type of equipment or service is scheduled to be competed with national standard specifications and a consistent process for Contractor Performance Evaluations.
We continue to explore new technology and other system enhancements to ensure VIPR is an efficient, effective tool. You can keep up with our progress by visiting the Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) project.
Here are the basics of what is needed to become compliant with Government regulations and interact with our systems.
Obtain an eMail Address: If you don't already have one, obtain a valid email address. You can obtain one from your internet service provider (ISP) or you can use one of the many free services available on the Web. A valid email address is required to register with System for Award Management (SAM) and Login.gov.
Obtain an IRS TIN: For invoicing, payment, and tax purposes, you must have a Taxpayer Identification Number as required by the IRS. For privacy and security purposes, we recommend that you do not use your Social Security Number (SSN).
Register for a USDA Login.gov account: The individual from your company who will be signing your preseason incident agreement with the Forest Service must obtain a Login.gov account in order to transact business with the government. For questions about Login.gov, contact the Login.gov team at https://www.login.gov/contact/ or their Help Center at https://www.login.gov/help/.
Register with SAM.gov: In order to do business with the Federal Government (as required by FAR 4.11), you must register in the System for Award Management (SAM). Once you are registered in SAM, you will receive a unique entity ID (UEI), which you can use to register in the VIPR application. You are required to validate your information in SAM.gov once per year. Even if you do not have any updates, you must access SAM.gov at least once every 12 months to keep your SAM.gov account active. The Government cannot make payments to vendors with an expired or inactive SAM.gov account. Watch SAM.gov for business opportunities. Every competitive solicitation we offer is first posted to SAM.gov, which provides you with government-wide business opportunities. Every solicitation is different, so carefully read the instructions on how to submit your offers.