November 29, 2016
As experienced government contractors well know, submitting a proposal after a solicitation has closed is a bad idea. One of the first lessons contractors, and agency personnel, learn is that “late is late,” period. GAO has consistently and repeatedly reinforced this tenet. The Agency, however, does have latitude in adjusting a due date. This often occurs when a solicitation is amended or…
November 15, 2016
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) generally does not require a price realism analysis in the context of a fixed price contract. Instead, the agency is merely required to determine that the offered price is fair and reasonable (i.e. not too high). However, if the government exercises its discretion to conduct a price realism analysis (to evaluate whether the proposed prices are too low),…
October 11, 2016
Two recent decisions highlight the importance of the record to GAO’s consideration of claims for protest costs where the agency takes corrective action before GAO issues a decision. In such circumstances, a protestor can prevail on its cost claim if the agency’s corrective action is unduly delayed and the protestor’s claim is “clearly meritorious.” But the consideration of a protest’s merit is…
September 27, 2016
Given the high cost of preparing a proposal in response to a government solicitation, an agency’s cancellation of a procurement can be both frustrating and disappointing. However, as the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion in Medfinity LLC, B-413450 (September 9, 2016) makes clear, it is exceedingly difficult to prevail on a protest challenging an agency’s decision to cancel a…
September 19, 2016
Task orders issued off ID/IQ contracts, like all government contract awards, must materially comply with the terms of the task order solicitation. The “material” terms of a solicitation are those terms affecting the “price, quantity, quality, or delivery of the goods or services.” Additionally, sometimes the terms of the underlying contract can be relied upon by a protestor to make its case that…
August 30, 2016
The 8(a) set-aside program of the Small Business Administration (SBA) provides small businesses with contracting opportunities that might otherwise be far beyond their reach. An 8(a) award is ultimately between the agency and the SBA, with the successful offeror acting as a subcontractor to the SBA and performing the contractor. Significantly, the program allows 8(a) entities to combine resources…
August 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…
August 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…
August 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…
June 21, 2016
Disappointed bidders always have to decide whether or not to protest based on a limited set of facts – those known at the time to decision is made. Of course, this means that even protest grounds that appear objectively sound at the time of protest can later be undercut by facts revealed during the protest process. This appears to be precisely what happened in the recent Government Accountability…
June 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…
May 23, 2016
It has been suggested that “proper planning prevents poor performance.” While that may not always be the case, the statement does provide a pleasantly alliterative reminder that establishing procedures generally does help minimize mistakes. In the context of proposal preparation, one mistake contractors should try to avoid is failing to acknowledge amendments to the solicitation. The recent…
November 29, 2016
As experienced government contractors well know, submitting a proposal after a solicitation has closed is a bad idea. One of the first lessons contractors, and agency personnel, learn is that “late is late,” period. GAO has consistently and repeatedly reinforced this tenet. The Agency, however, does have latitude in adjusting a due date. This often occurs when a solicitation is amended or…
November 15, 2016
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) generally does not require a price realism analysis in the context of a fixed price contract. Instead, the agency is merely required to determine that the offered price is fair and reasonable (i.e. not too high). However, if the government exercises its discretion to conduct a price realism analysis (to evaluate whether the proposed prices are too low),…
October 11, 2016
Two recent decisions highlight the importance of the record to GAO’s consideration of claims for protest costs where the agency takes corrective action before GAO issues a decision. In such circumstances, a protestor can prevail on its cost claim if the agency’s corrective action is unduly delayed and the protestor’s claim is “clearly meritorious.” But the consideration of a protest’s merit is…
September 27, 2016
Given the high cost of preparing a proposal in response to a government solicitation, an agency’s cancellation of a procurement can be both frustrating and disappointing. However, as the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion in Medfinity LLC, B-413450 (September 9, 2016) makes clear, it is exceedingly difficult to prevail on a protest challenging an agency’s decision to cancel a…
September 19, 2016
Task orders issued off ID/IQ contracts, like all government contract awards, must materially comply with the terms of the task order solicitation. The “material” terms of a solicitation are those terms affecting the “price, quantity, quality, or delivery of the goods or services.” Additionally, sometimes the terms of the underlying contract can be relied upon by a protestor to make its case that…
August 30, 2016
The 8(a) set-aside program of the Small Business Administration (SBA) provides small businesses with contracting opportunities that might otherwise be far beyond their reach. An 8(a) award is ultimately between the agency and the SBA, with the successful offeror acting as a subcontractor to the SBA and performing the contractor. Significantly, the program allows 8(a) entities to combine resources…
August 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…
August 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…
August 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…
June 21, 2016
Disappointed bidders always have to decide whether or not to protest based on a limited set of facts – those known at the time to decision is made. Of course, this means that even protest grounds that appear objectively sound at the time of protest can later be undercut by facts revealed during the protest process. This appears to be precisely what happened in the recent Government Accountability…
June 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…
May 23, 2016
It has been suggested that “proper planning prevents poor performance.” While that may not always be the case, the statement does provide a pleasantly alliterative reminder that establishing procedures generally does help minimize mistakes. In the context of proposal preparation, one mistake contractors should try to avoid is failing to acknowledge amendments to the solicitation. The recent…
