Past performance questionnaire (PPQ): who sends it, how references return it, how it is scored
Overview
A past performance questionnaire (PPQ) is a form a government buyer sends to the references a bidder lists, asking how the company performed. The reference completes it and returns it directly to the contracting officer, not to the bidder. The buyer scores the answers and the contract relevance during the bid, which is separate from the CPARS record agencies write after an award.
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What a PPQ is and who sends it
A PPQ is the buyer’s own survey of the references on your bid. You supply the names, and the contracting officer sends the form. In the VA’s 2026 solicitation for wheelchair van service at the Altoona medical center (36C24426R0021), the offeror lists up to ten contacts for similar contracts. The contract number, dollar value, period of performance and whether the work was as a prime, a subcontractor or key personnel go in with each one. The solicitation says the contracting officer then uses questionnaires to seek performance information from those references.
The reference completes the form and returns it to the contracting officer before the proposal deadline. It does not come back through you. The VA form tells evaluators their comments are treated as source selection sensitive. Our VA transportation guide covers how those buys run.
What does a PPQ ask?
It asks one relevance question and thirteen performance questions, plus whether the reference would hire you again. In the Altoona form, the evaluator first rates how relevant the contract is to the VA’s requirement, from very relevant to not relevant. Then the evaluator rates each performance question from substantial confidence down to no confidence, or unknown confidence when there is not enough history.
The Altoona questions cover compliance with contract requirements, timeliness, labor and safety standards, contract management, and meeting peak periods. They also cover communication and dispatch, including real-time patient tracking, scheduled and unscheduled pickups, evening and weekend long-distance trips, handling of complaints and accidents, staff integrity, willingness to correct problems, timely reports, personnel management, and quality control. The last question asks, yes or no, whether the evaluator would award another contract to you. A form from another agency will differ, but the themes are the ones a ride buyer cares about: showing up on time, safety, communication and fixing problems.
How agencies score it
Agencies weigh each reference by how recent and relevant it is, then roll the answers into one rating. FAR 15.305(a)(2), which the overhauled FAR text that VA applies carries in section 15.202(c), tells the evaluator to consider the currency and relevance of the information, its source, the context and general trends. It also separates this comparison from the responsibility determination, and it lets the source selection authority decide how relevant a past contract is.
Smaller purchases get lighter treatment. FAR 13.106-2(b)(3) lets a contracting officer base past performance on the officer’s own experience, customer surveys and questionnaire replies, CPARS, or any other reasonable basis. In the Altoona solicitation, which was an RFP, past performance was significantly more important than price. Offers were ranked by price first. The VA started with the lowest-priced offeror, and if that company earned Substantial Confidence and was found responsible, it could be selected and the evaluation could stop there. A company with no relevant record gets Unknown Confidence, which the solicitation treats neither favorably nor unfavorably. What new companies do about references is in our guide to contracts with no experience.
When the form never arrives
A questionnaire that is never returned can cost you the rating. On August 28, 2026, the VA posted amendment 0008 to the Altoona solicitation. It says vendors in the service-disabled veteran-owned tier were rated Limited Confidence because they did not receive any Past Performance Questionnaires from evaluators. The VA withdrew that tier and moved the evaluation on to small businesses generally.
Treat each questionnaire as a task with a due date. Tell the reference what is coming and from whom, send the contract number, period and value so the top block is right, and call a week before the deadline to ask whether it has gone out.
How a PPQ differs from CPARS
A PPQ is gathered for one bid, while CPARS is the agency’s running record of a federal contract. Under FAR 42.1502 (section 42.1102 in the overhauled text), agencies prepare past performance evaluations at least annually and when the work is complete, for contracts above the simplified acquisition threshold, and they enter them in CPARS. FAR 42.1503 (42.1103 in the overhauled text) requires ratings on technical quality, cost control (not applicable to firm-fixed-price contracts), schedule, management and business relations, and small business subcontracting, using exceptional, very good, satisfactory, marginal and unsatisfactory. The contractor can add comments for up to 14 calendar days after notice, and the agency may use the evaluation to support future awards. Agencies use CPARS information from within three years of the completion of the work, in both the codified and the overhauled text.
The VA’s Altoona solicitation adds its own rules. A contractor whose award is expected to exceed $1,000,000 must register in CPARS within 30 days of award, and the VA gives the contractor 30 days to comment on each report, longer than the FAR’s 14. A report with no response is filed with a note that the contractor failed to respond.
Getting your own numbers first
Before a reference rates your timeliness, check what your own records show. HealthRide’s on-time report breaks punctuality out by driver, and its trip log lists the scheduled and actual time of each leg and can be downloaded as a CSV or a PDF to share with a reference. See reports for what each one covers.
Frequently asked questions
- Who sends the questionnaire to my references?
- The buyer does. In the VA Altoona wheelchair van solicitation, the bidder lists its references with contact details, and the contracting officer then uses the questionnaire to collect performance information from them. You tell your references to expect it, but you do not send it or collect it.
- Can I fill it out for my reference?
- Only the top block. The form lets the bidder or contracting officer fill in the company name, contract number, customer, period and value. The ratings, comments and signature belong to the evaluator, and the form says the contracting officer may contact the evaluator to confirm them.
- How many references, and how recent?
- Each solicitation sets its own rule. The VA Altoona solicitation allowed up to ten references for similar contracts performed in the three years before the solicitation was issued. Read the instruction section of the bid you are answering before you choose.
- Does a PPQ replace the CPARS record?
- No. A PPQ is collected during one bid from the references you name. CPARS is the evaluation an agency writes about a federal contract after the work, and other federal buyers can see it when you bid again.
- What happens if a reference never sends it back?
- The buyer may score you without it. In amendment 0008 to the Altoona solicitation, VA wrote that bidders in one tier were rated Limited Confidence because they did not receive any questionnaires from evaluators. Call each reference before the deadline and ask when it will go out.
