Contracting - FATS
FZ: DEFCONS and DEFSTANS cover all these points, but wasn't the idea behind FATS that these would all be agreed up front, along with manhour rates etc. Those companies pitching for safety-related work (including airworthiness) had to pre-qualify to show that they were able to meet the required standards for skill, knowledge and experience etc. When a task was required it was supposed to be only a matter of the applicable contractors tendering their solution and manhour costs against an ITT/SOR; effectively, there would be a mini-competition for each contract, but with pre-agreed Ts & Cs and rates.
Perhaps this put too much work on the people in the IPTs so they decided to make every contract a single-source and give the work only to the big boys.