Category Archives: GAO Bid Protests

GAO bid protest decisions, commentary on GAO bid protest regulations, and related topics.

GAO: Agencies Cannot Ignore Price In Evaluating BPAs

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In the current economic climate, procuring agencies seem to be focused more than ever on the bottom line, with “lowest-price, technically-acceptable” solicitations appearing to be on the rise.  Even today, however, price is not the government’s paramount consideration in every solicitation–nor is it required to be.  But that does not mean that a procuring agency is free to ignore price completely.

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, the procuring agency failed to consider the protester’s price before eliminating the protester from a competition for award of a Blanket Purchase Agreement.  The GAO’s response?  “Not so fast.”

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Contractor’s Price Revealed to Competitors, GAO Says “Tough Luck”

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When a contractor is declared the winner of a competition, the contractor’s bottom-line pricing is usually revealed to competitors.  Typically, the winner has no complaints: it is well-understood that the bottom-line pricing of winning contractors is usually considered public information (the taxpayers have a right to know how the government is spending their money).

But what if, after announcing the supposed awardee’s price, the agency changes its mind and re-opens the competition?  The price of the former “winner” is exposed, while the prices of its competitors remain a mystery.  It sounds unfair, but in a recent GAO bid protest decision, the GAO refused to require the procuring agency to level the playing field.

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GAO: Agencies May Request Size Re-certification For Task Orders

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The GAO has confirmed that procuring agencies may require contractors to re-certify their “small” sizes in connection with task order competitions under a small business multiple-award contract.  The GAO’s recent decision in The Ross Group Construction Corporation, B-405180.3 (Aug. 7, 2012) demonstrates that procuring agencies have broad discretion to request size re-certification–even for task order competitions for which re-certification was not initially requested.

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No Conflict: GAO Holds Contractor’s Former Employee May Evaluate Proposals

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Is it a conflict of interest for a contractor’s former employee to evaluate his old firm’s competitive proposal?  Not necessarily, according to the GAO.

In a recent GAO bid protest decision, the agency’s technical evaluation board included a member who had previously worked for the winning offeror.  As one might expect, this did not sit particularly well with one of the awardee’s competitors, which filed a GAO bid protest.  The GAO’s ruling: there was no conflict of interest.

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How Low Can You Go? GAO Denies Price Realism Protest

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When is a competitor’s low price simply too low to be realistic?  Maybe never, at least when it comes to challenging the low price in a GAO bid protest.

As seen in a recent GAO bid protest decision, when a fixed-price solicitation does not call for a price realism analysis, the procuring agency is not required to conduct one–and a competitor will not succeed in challenging the award on the basis of a supposedly unrealistically low price.

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GAO: Procuring Agency May Withhold Names Of Incumbent’s Subcontractors

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Bidding against an incumbent prime contractor often presents unique challenges.  In some cases, the incumbent has been highly successful, and the procuring agency may hope to award the follow-on to the same company.  Even if the agency is not predisposed to favor the incumbent, the incumbent often knows more than its challengers about how the new procurement will actually operate “in real life.”

But just because an incumbent has unique information about the ongoing procurement does not mean that the procuring agency is necessarily required to level the playing field by releasing that information to challengers.  For instance, in one recent GAO bid protest decision, the GAO held that the procuring agency was not required to release the names of the incumbent’s subcontractors or other proprietary and confidential information about the incumbent contract.

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GAO Has Jurisdiction Over BPA Modification Protests

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The GAO has jurisdiction to decide protests challenging modifications to blanket purchase agreements, according to a recent GAO protest decision.  In Crewzers Fire Crew Transport, Inc., B-406601 (July 11, 2012), the GAO rejected a procuring agency’s argument that BPA modifications are a matter of contract administration, and thus outside the GAO’s protest jurisdiction.

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