Government Contracts MonitorBids and ProposalsIf You Want Extra Credit, Ask In Advance: Threshold Goals vs. Comparative RatingsAugust 23, 2016 Before a contractor offers more than the solicitation requires, it should first confirm that it will receive credit for going above and beyond. This is particularly true where the solicitation lays out a clear evaluation scheme and identifies certain evaluation factors as threshold criteria rather than factors to be rated comparatively, with more credit given for exceeding requirements. As the… Suspicions Alone Are Not Enough for an OCI at GAOAugust 8, 2016 As government contractors gain experience and develop their skills, they often reap the hoped-for reward: more contracts. But when success comes in the form of future awards, contractors (and the agencies with which they consistently do business) must always be on the lookout for potential organizational conflicts of interest (OCI). Determining whether an OCI exists can be a tricky endeavor, as… Short Take: FAR Council Updates Standard Forms for BondsAugust 1, 2016 The FAR Council recently issued a final rule amending five standard forms prescribed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) for contracts involving bonds and other financial protections. The revisions are aimed at expanding the options for organization types and clarifying liability limitations. More particularly, the new rule addresses the concerns by surety bond producers that they may be… Reasonable and Related to the Evaluation Criteria: Beyond Checking the Boxes in A&E ProposalsAugust 1, 2016 After an unsuccessful bid, disappointed bidders sometimes present hyper-technical protests in a passionate, yet misplaced, attempt to protect their economic interests. Many of these protests ignore the wide discretion GAO gives to agencies in their evaluation pf proposals, and ultimate selection of an awardee. Bidders on Architecture and Engineering (A&E) contracts must be particularly aware that… Don’t Get Eliminated on a Technicality - But Don’t Play Games in an Attempt to Meet Solicitation RequirementsJune 12, 2016 A recent decision by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) illustrates the importance of properly meeting a solicitation’s requirements in full, to include page limits and font sizes. While these may seem like insignificant details, failure to follow the instructions to the letter can mean the difference between a proposal being evaluated on its technical merits and being eliminated from… Proposal Costs: Grabbing the Brass Ring at GAOMay 23, 2016 A protest sustained on its merits is always good news for a contractor, and often is accompanied by an award of the costs to pursue the protest. Occasionally, however, a contractor will achieve an even bigger win: not only seeing its protest sustained and recouping its protest costs, but also winning award of its proposal preparation costs. The recent Government Accountability… Beyond Spoon-Feeding: When an Agency Holds Out in DiscussionsMay 15, 2016 In a negotiated procurement, it is axiomatic that, when discussions are initiated, an agency must hold “meaningful discussions” with all offerors. On the other hand, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has held time and again that an agency need not “spoon-feed” an offeror by identifying every area in which an offer could be improved. In Crowley Logistics, Inc., the GAO addressed the… Eric Whytsell Will Be Speaking at the March Meeting of the NWV Chapter of the NCMAMarch 6, 2016 At the March 14th Meeting of the Northern West Virginia Chapter of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), Eric Whytsell will be giving a presentation entitled, “Practical Answers to Key Protest Questions.” His talk will address the complex set of questions surrounding bid protests, questions that any contractor that has ever been -- or thought it might become -- a disappointed… Magic Words Are Not Always Required to Fulfill Solicitation RequirementsFebruary 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… If a Solicitation Ambiguity Doesn’t Become Apparent until Evaluation of Proposals, It’s Latent – and Fair Game for a Post-Award ProtestFebruary 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… Make Sure to Look at the Forest as Well as the Trees: Read Proposal Requirements in ContextFebruary 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… Don’t Win the Battle but Lose the War – Remember to Demonstrate PrejudiceFebruary 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,… |
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