Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP)

FAR 46.401(a) sets the two content requirements: the plan specifies all work requiring surveillance and the method of surveillance, and it is prepared in conjunction with the statement of work rather than after award. In a performance-based service acquisition the QASP works from the performance work statement, laying out for each standard who checks, how often, and against what acceptable quality level.

FAR 37.604 gives the government a choice: prepare the plan itself or require offerors to submit a proposed QASP for consideration in developing the government's own. The plan stays a government document either way, and Part 46 requires that inspection be performed by or under the direction or supervision of government personnel.

The standing failure is the QASP written for the award file and never opened again. When performance slips, a deduction, a cure notice, or a defensible CPARS narrative all need documented surveillance behind them, and a file with none supports nothing. A short plan the COR actually runs each month beats an elaborate one nobody executes.