By William Weisberg, Esq., So, I was asking myself, what about government contracts drives me up a wall? More particularly, what is most frustrating to me, as a practicing procurement lawyer? Easy: debriefings. We (at least contractor “we”) have participated in debriefings where the government “script” was some variation on: “Your proposal was terrible. Here… Read more »
By Tyler Freiberger Untimeliness is one of the most common reasons protests of government solicitations and awards before the Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) and The Court of Federal Claims are dismissed. The accompanying chart describes the somewhat harsh and complex rules required for filing before each body. For protests on how a solicitation is written,… Read more »
Yes, you read the title correctly – a protester actually protested its own future award. In an interesting twist of fate, a company recently filed a pre-award bid protest only to find out that the agency had already evaluated the protester’s bid and intended to award the contract to the protester. Daekee Global Company, Ltd.,… Read more »
In its September 18, 2017 decision, the GAO sustained McCann-Erickson USA, Inc.’s (“McCann”) protest challenging the Army’s preliminary elimination of McCann’s proposal for advertising services on an acquisition valued up to $4 billion. After receiving numerous proposals the Army performed a “compliance review” aimed at thinning the number of proposals before applying the evaluation criteria… Read more »
In its September 18, 2017 decision, the GAO sustained a protest over a task order awarded to a contractor whom only had one of the two required services listed on their General Services Administration (“GSA”) Federal Supply Schedule (“FSS”). The United States Navy attempted to acquire 120-250 hotel rooms for civil service mariners in the… Read more »
In a GAO decision released September 13, 2017, the GAO denied Walker Development & Trading Group, Inc.’s (“Walker”) request for reconsideration of the denial of its costs. On January 2, 2017, Walker filed a protest arguing that the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) did not properly set a requirement aside for small businesses. In the… Read more »
Federal contractors often feel a great sense of relief when they are selected for an award. However, the recent GAO decision regarding a request for quotations for supplying diesel shows just how quickly a business relationship with the federal government can sour. Bluehorse Corporation, an Indian Small Business, successfully submitted the lowest price quote on… Read more »
In its July 28, 2017 decision, the GAO denied a protest and found an agency’s decision to negotiate a sole-source contract with a Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) to be reasonable based on the agency’s lack of progress in meeting its HUBZone goals. JRS Staffing Services, B-414630, B414630.2 (July 28, 2017). The original solicitation process… Read more »
In its July 17, 2017, decision the GAO partially sustained a protest after an agency conducted an unreasonable past performance evaluation. Timberline LLC’s award for the maintenance and deactivation of manufactured housing units in Louisiana was protested by MLU services after MLU noticed an oddity about Timberline LLC’s submitted past performance history. Put simply, the… Read more »
Any contractor is frustrated when they fail to win a solicitation award. Getting edged out on price by a few percentage points, receiving a low technical rating due to a misread proposal, or dealing with confusing evaluation criteria; all legitimate complaints. But imagine if your protest was not even considered, despite clear proof you sent… Read more »
