VA HANDBOOK 0100 Washington, METRIC TRANSITION PLAN (IMPLEMENTAT... Page 4 of 11
adopted whenever possible. Soft, dual, or hybrid English-metric measurements are to be replaced with
hard metric measurements whenever and as soon as practical.
h. Existing specifications or standards in inch/pound units will be converted as soon as possible, but
no later than the end of its next review cycle or when they are updated under normal conditions.
i. The measurement units in which a system is originally designed may be retained for the life of that
system, unless conversion is necessary or advantageous.
j. Bulk (loose, unpacked) materials normally will be specified and accepted in metric units. Measuring
devices, shop and laboratory equipment should be procured in metric or dual units.
k. The metric system of weights and measures will be used for proposals in grants, cooperative
agreements, interagency agreements, and contracts. Likewise, metrics will be used for reports,
publications, and communications regarding proposals.
l. VA will state all measurement sensitive requirements in metric terms whenever possible.
Alternatives to hard metric are soft, dual, and hybrid metric terms. The tolerances specified in the
conversion tables contained in the latest revision of Federal Standard No. 376B will be used by the
requesting VA activity.
m. Contracting officers will return all statements of work/specifications that are not expressed in some
form of metric terms to the requirements office that prepared the documents, if:
(1) The contract is expected to be 0,000 or more, unless the requirements office has forwarded to
the contracting activity for approval, in a waiver format, a justification for the use of non-metric
specifications/statements of work. Optional year pricing shall be considered when computing the
0,000 threshold. If the request for waiver is not approved, the requirement package will not be
processed. It will be returned to the requirement office.
(2) The contract is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold but is less than 0,000
and a justification for the use of non-metric specifications/statements of work is not included with the
requirement package.
(3) The item is considered a simplified acquisition and attempts have not been made to obtain such
items in metric measurements when available, economically feasible, and practical to meet
program/project needs. The unavailability of items in metric units such as mandatory Federal Supply
Schedules and Government stock is sufficient justification for a non-metric purchase, and a statement to
that effect will be placed in the project file.
(4) Waivers are not required when ordering from the General Services Administration and
Department of Defense (DoD) depot stock, mandatory Federal Supply Schedule contracts; mandatory
sources of supply, such as Federal Prison Industries and Committee for Purchase From People Who Are
Blind or Severely Disabled or if a contract is not expected to exceed 0,000. When a contract is not
expected to exceed 0,000, all attempts to apply metric measurements must be taken. If conversion of
the measurements to metrics is determined to be inappropriate, a statement justifying the circumstances
will be maintained on file as indicated in paragraphs (l) (1) and (2) above.
(5) Metric conversion costs will be handled in VA as normal operating expenses. However, any major
costs are to be identified to the extent practicable and included in the metric annual report. This includes
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