The Procurement Playbook

Today, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued its annual report bid protest report to congress. The report shows a sharp decline in the rate of protests sustained by GAO. For several years the “sustain rate” at GAO had consistently hovered between 16% and 19%. Today’s report shows the “sustain […]

As Congress reconvenes it will consider a new bill that would direct federal agencies to give preferential points in the bidding process to federal government contractors based on their labor practices. The bill, proposed by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), would give points to companies that pay their employees a […]

In the world of GAO post-award bid protests, there are certain arguments that are particularly prevalent amongst sustained protests (such as the failure to follow the solicitation evaluation criteria, inadequate documentation of the source selection decision,  unequal treatment of offerors, and unreasonable price or cost evaluation), and there are other arguments that while less prevalent […]

It is not uncommon for a FAR Part 15 negotiated procurement to include a round of “Oral Presentations” in the proposal/evaluation process. Oral Presentations are permitted by FAR 15.102, and are usually used to augment the agency’s understanding of the written proposal. But at what point does the dialogue between […]

Over the past two months the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) has published two proposed rules to revise small business size standards in the North American Industry Classification System (“NAICS”).  If the proposed rules are adopted, nearly 1,650 additional firms will become eligible for small business contracting programs and SBA small business loans. […]

In a rare move, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (COFC) imposed sanctions on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its conduct during the bid protest of Coastal Environmental Group, Inc. v. United States.  While the EPA ultimately prevailed on the merits of the protest, the EPA’s conduct was so egregious […]

This is the first in a series of posts highlighting common mistakes made (by protestors) in bid protests at GAO.  Today’s post discusses a mistake related to the deadline for filing supplemental protests when an extension is granted for filing comments on the agency report.  This mistake is made by […]

One might assume that if the top two proposals in a best-value procurement receive the same ratings on all non-price factors, the proposals are obviously equal in technical merit and the award must go to the lower priced proposal.  However, this assumption would be incorrect.  And, as GAO recently pointed […]

Debarment is not just for ethics violations anymore. Suspending and Debarring Officials are looking to a new source for referrals – Contracting Officers. FAR 9.406-2(b)(1)(i)(A) and FAR 9.406-2(b)(1)(i)(B) allow Suspending and Debarring Officials to debar companies for a history of performance issues or a willful failure to perform in accordance […]

One of the most fundamental requirements of Small Business Administration’s (SBA) size protest regulations is that the protested firm must timely produce information/documents that SBA requests to perform its investigation of the firm’s size/status. What is the penalty for failing to provide requested information/documents? SBA may presume the missing information would demonstrate that […]

In a recent bid protest decision concerning the Department of Energy’s award of legacy management support services award contract, GAO held that the agency acted reasonably when evaluating protestor WSS’s past performance on the incumbent contract by disregarding two Contractor Performance Assessment Reports (“CPARs”), which reflected “exceptional” performance, in favor of […]