Government Contracts MonitorBid ProtestsKey Personnel: Can you Stand Silent If Your Proposal Is No Longer Accurate?October 28, 2014 According to a recent decision by the General Accountability Office (GAO) the answer is “No.” If you submit a proposal with a key personnel requirement, and one or more of your proposed key people are no longer available, your proposal is no longer technically acceptable. Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. (Booz Allen) just learned this the hard way when Paradigm Technologies (Paradigm) protested,… The Contractor’s Burden to Establish Responsibility – Do It Early and Do It RightOctober 14, 2014 A pre-award protest filed by Bailey Tool & Manufacturing Company (BTM) in the Court of Federal Claims – challenging BTM’s elimination from the competition as “nonresponsible” because its financial resources were found inadequate to perform the contract – did not succeed. Why? The burden was on BTM to prove it was responsible and it simply waited too long to make the required showing… Short Take: Department of Defense Proposes Updates to Improve Disclosure of Public InformationOctober 7, 2014 On September 3, 2014, the Department of Defense (DoD) issued a notice of proposed changes to the DoD’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program, 32 C.F.R. Part 286. The proposed rule seeks to promote uniformity in the program and streamline the process to acquire public records through a FOIA request. Among other things, the proposed rule would amend the DoD FOIA website to make it… Ten Things to Remember about DebriefingsOctober 7, 2014 With the end of the government’s fiscal year comes a rash of contract awards, which means that many contractors are experiencing either “the thrill of victory” or “the agony of defeat”. Regardless of which side of the award decision you end up on, there are a number of important things to keep in mind about debriefings:
If a Prime Contractually Agrees to Sponsor a Sub’s Claims or Protests – Does it End There?September 23, 2014 The recent decision of the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) in Binghamton Simulator Co., ASBCA No. 59117, provides an interesting twist on a frequent issue in drafting subcontracts and teaming agreements – namely, how to enable the subcontractor to pursue an appeal of an adverse contracting officer final decision, or file a bid protest, and particularly in the event that the prime… RFP Requirements Can Restrict Competition as Long as They Are ReasonableSeptember 16, 2014 Contractors often want to argue – sometimes with good reason – that restrictive RFP requirements are unwise and ill-conceived and should be modified so that competition is not unduly constrained. The recent decision in AAR Airlift Group, Inc., B-409770 (July 29, 2014) serves as a reminder, however, that no matter how righteous a contractor believes its challenge to RFP requirements to be,… Don’t Let Your Award Be Protested Without You – Intervene and ParticipateSeptember 8, 2014 A recent protest saga began when Motorola Solutions, Inc. (Motorola) challenged the U.S. Army’s award of a land mobile radio contract to Harris Corporation (Harris). Motorola claimed that Harris did not propose a radio approved by the Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS), a requirement of the Army’s Request for Proposals (RFP). Harris did not intervene in the… Short Take: Challenging a Default Termination – Be Timely or Be OutSeptember 8, 2014 A recent decision highlights the importance of understanding how and when a contractor can challenge a termination for default. In Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs, Inc. v. The United States, COFC No. 14-20C, decided August 29, 2014, the contractor did not appeal the Contracting Officer’s (CO’s) default termination to the Court of Federal Claims (COFC) within the required 12 month period and,… When a GAO Protest Decision Is Wrong the Court of Federal Claims Can Fix It – If You ProtestAugust 27, 2014
It does not happen very often, but in a recent post-award protest the Court of Federal Claims found an agency was arbitrary and capricious in implementing a United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision that recommended cancellation of a contract award. Rush Construction Inc. v. United States et al, COFC No. 14-202C, (Fed. Cl. July 15, 2014). According to the… Know Your Customer: Don’t Make Unfounded or Counter-Productive AssumptionsAugust 27, 2014 A recent GAO decision demonstrates the importance of knowing and understanding your customer, and avoiding making assumptions in preparing your proposal that may not accord with the customer’s mindset and may come back to bite you during proposal evaluation. The Bowen Group, B-409332.3 decided August 6, 2014. This protest involved a procurement by the United States Marine Corps for support… Incumbents Beware: Agencies May Reduce Your Competitive Advantage to Promote CompetitionAugust 27, 2014 Sometimes incumbent contractors become so ensconced in their role as the provider of particular goods or services that there seems to be no practical way that any competitor will ever unseat them. The recent decision in New Mexico State University, B-409566 (June 16, 2014), reminds us that incumbents in such situations may not be as safe as they think. Whether their competitive… Agency Cannot Ignore Solicitation’s Labor Rate Realism Analysis Requirement, Even in a Fixed Price ContractAugust 25, 2014 A recently-released GAO decision demonstrates the importance of paying attention to a solicitation’s wording in deciding whether to challenge a competitor’s labor rates as being too low. In Iron Vine Security, LLC, B-409015, decided January 22, 2014, the highly-ranked Iron Vine attacked the agency’s failure to evaluate the realism of the much lower-priced awardee’s proposed fixed labor… |
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