February 29, 2016
Preparing a responsive proposal requires reading and understanding the solicitation requirements and then meeting them -- as clearly and unambiguously as possible. The most direct and least risky way to craft such a response is to adopt whatever method of compliance the solicitation suggests (or requires). But, as the recent decision in Penn Parking, Inc., B-412280.2 (February 17, 2016) makes…
February 22, 2016
One of the reasons it’s so important to read solicitations carefully is that such review can help you identify any ambiguities before submitting your proposal. If the ambiguity is obvious, or “patent”, you must protest it before the proposal due date or not at all. In other words, an offeror can’t wait to see who wins the contract before deciding to gripe about an ambiguity that may have hurt its…
February 15, 2016
When assessing opportunities and preparing proposals, reading and understanding the contents of the solicitation is imperative. If you don’t know what the solicitation requires, it can be very hard to prepare a responsive, much less winning, proposal. But focusing exclusively on the words themselves – separated from their proper context – can also lead offerors astray. This point was brought home…
February 9, 2016
The Government’s statutory preference for acquiring commercial items that meet an agency’s needs comes with the requirement that, to the maximum extent possible, contracts for the acquisition of those items include only clauses that are consistent with customary commercial practice. In other words, if the Government buys commercial items, it is supposed to use commercial contract terms if it can.…
February 3, 2016
“Prejudice is an element of every viable protest.” No matter how many times the Government Accountability Office (GAO) intones this phrase in its protest decisions (and it’s in many GAO decisions), the concept of prejudice and the need to prove it to win a protest remain all too easy to forget in the heat of “battle.” The GAO’s decision in Data Recognition Corporation, B-411767.7, (January 20,…
February 3, 2016
Procurements based on federal supply schedule (FSS) contracts can be tricky -- for the Government agencies conducting them as well as the contractors hoping to win a contract. The ease with which such contracting efforts can go sideways is particularly evident in the recent decision in AllWorld Language Consultants, Inc., B-411481.3 (January 6, 2016). The decision makes clear a fundamental rule…
February 3, 2016
Small businesses and their teaming partners often spend a significant amount of time figuring out how best to comply with FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting. This should come as no surprise, since the clause imposes strict requirements concerning the amount of set-aside contract work that must be performed by the prime contractor and failure to comply can render a proposal…
January 18, 2016
In order to make good decisions about whether and how to protest an award decision, disappointed bidders must, among other things, have good information about the awardee. This is particularly true where the protest grounds being considered include the argument that the winner’s proposal violated the applicable limitation on subcontracting requirement, an attack that requires a showing that the…
January 11, 2016
If you want to win contract awards, your proposal needs to clearly and persuasively explain why you are the right choice. The words you choose matter, as does the way you arrange them. Indeed, as the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision in Federal Acquisition Services Alliant Joint Venture, B-411842.2 (November 9, 2015) starkly demonstrates, sloppy syntax, grammar, and…
December 7, 2015
Agency comments during discussions often articulate a weakness or deficiency. Sometimes, however, the Government is also simply asking questions – identifying specific issues that should be addressed – and affording an offeror the opportunity to explain its proposal. When that happens, contractors need to be ready to capitalize on that opportunity to explain, but not always necessarily to change,…
November 30, 2015
A recent article addressed the dangers of “aspirational analysis”, the dynamic in which offerors interpret a solicitation as saying what they want it to say rather than recognizing what it actually requires. A slightly different version of the problem is highlighted by the decision in Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services, LLC, B-411733; B-411733.4 (October 8, 2015), where the protester…
November 30, 2015
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently was called upon, for the first time, to consider circumstances where an agency knowingly failed to investigate and resolve whether an agency employee who actively engaged in procurement-related activities should have been recused from those activities due to an apparent conflict of interest arising from the employee’s prior employment by the…
February 29, 2016
Preparing a responsive proposal requires reading and understanding the solicitation requirements and then meeting them -- as clearly and unambiguously as possible. The most direct and least risky way to craft such a response is to adopt whatever method of compliance the solicitation suggests (or requires). But, as the recent decision in Penn Parking, Inc., B-412280.2 (February 17, 2016) makes…
February 22, 2016
One of the reasons it’s so important to read solicitations carefully is that such review can help you identify any ambiguities before submitting your proposal. If the ambiguity is obvious, or “patent”, you must protest it before the proposal due date or not at all. In other words, an offeror can’t wait to see who wins the contract before deciding to gripe about an ambiguity that may have hurt its…
February 15, 2016
When assessing opportunities and preparing proposals, reading and understanding the contents of the solicitation is imperative. If you don’t know what the solicitation requires, it can be very hard to prepare a responsive, much less winning, proposal. But focusing exclusively on the words themselves – separated from their proper context – can also lead offerors astray. This point was brought home…
February 9, 2016
The Government’s statutory preference for acquiring commercial items that meet an agency’s needs comes with the requirement that, to the maximum extent possible, contracts for the acquisition of those items include only clauses that are consistent with customary commercial practice. In other words, if the Government buys commercial items, it is supposed to use commercial contract terms if it can.…
February 3, 2016
“Prejudice is an element of every viable protest.” No matter how many times the Government Accountability Office (GAO) intones this phrase in its protest decisions (and it’s in many GAO decisions), the concept of prejudice and the need to prove it to win a protest remain all too easy to forget in the heat of “battle.” The GAO’s decision in Data Recognition Corporation, B-411767.7, (January 20,…
February 3, 2016
Procurements based on federal supply schedule (FSS) contracts can be tricky -- for the Government agencies conducting them as well as the contractors hoping to win a contract. The ease with which such contracting efforts can go sideways is particularly evident in the recent decision in AllWorld Language Consultants, Inc., B-411481.3 (January 6, 2016). The decision makes clear a fundamental rule…
February 3, 2016
Small businesses and their teaming partners often spend a significant amount of time figuring out how best to comply with FAR 52.219-14, Limitations on Subcontracting. This should come as no surprise, since the clause imposes strict requirements concerning the amount of set-aside contract work that must be performed by the prime contractor and failure to comply can render a proposal…
January 18, 2016
In order to make good decisions about whether and how to protest an award decision, disappointed bidders must, among other things, have good information about the awardee. This is particularly true where the protest grounds being considered include the argument that the winner’s proposal violated the applicable limitation on subcontracting requirement, an attack that requires a showing that the…
January 11, 2016
If you want to win contract awards, your proposal needs to clearly and persuasively explain why you are the right choice. The words you choose matter, as does the way you arrange them. Indeed, as the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision in Federal Acquisition Services Alliant Joint Venture, B-411842.2 (November 9, 2015) starkly demonstrates, sloppy syntax, grammar, and…
December 7, 2015
Agency comments during discussions often articulate a weakness or deficiency. Sometimes, however, the Government is also simply asking questions – identifying specific issues that should be addressed – and affording an offeror the opportunity to explain its proposal. When that happens, contractors need to be ready to capitalize on that opportunity to explain, but not always necessarily to change,…
November 30, 2015
A recent article addressed the dangers of “aspirational analysis”, the dynamic in which offerors interpret a solicitation as saying what they want it to say rather than recognizing what it actually requires. A slightly different version of the problem is highlighted by the decision in Aerostar Perma-Fix TRU Services, LLC, B-411733; B-411733.4 (October 8, 2015), where the protester…
November 30, 2015
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently was called upon, for the first time, to consider circumstances where an agency knowingly failed to investigate and resolve whether an agency employee who actively engaged in procurement-related activities should have been recused from those activities due to an apparent conflict of interest arising from the employee’s prior employment by the…
